Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 358.0

529US1

Unit: $U42

[10-11-01 11:58:07] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 277 (2000)

283

Opinion of the Court

Pap’s), which operated a nude dancing establishment in Erie,
challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance and sought
a permanent injunction against its enforcement. The Penn-
sylvania Supreme Court, although noting that this Court in
Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U. S. 560 (1991), had upheld
an Indiana ordinance that was “strikingly similar” to Erie’s,
found that the public nudity sections of the ordinance vio-
lated respondent’s right to freedom of expression under the
United States Constitution. 553 Pa. 348, 356, 719 A. 2d 273,
277 (1998). This case raises the question whether the Penn-
sylvania Supreme Court properly evaluated the ordinance’s
constitutionality under the First Amendment. We hold that
Erie’s ordinance is a content-neutral regulation that satisﬁes
the four-part test of United States v. O’Brien, 391 U. S. 367
(1968). Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the Pennsyl-
vania Supreme Court and remand for the consideration of
any remaining issues.

I

On September 28, 1994, the city council for the city of Erie,
Pennsylvania, enacted Ordinance 75–1994, a public indecency
ordinance that makes it a summary offense to knowingly
or intentionally appear in public in a “state of nudity.”*

*Ordinance 75–1994, codiﬁed as Article 711 of the Codiﬁed Ordinances

of the city of Erie, provides in relevant part:

“1. A person who knowingly or intentionally, in a public place:
“a. engages in sexual intercourse
“b. engages in deviate sexual intercourse as deﬁned by the Pennsylva-

nia Crimes Code

“c. appears in a state of nudity, or
“d. fondles the genitals of himself, herself or another person commits

Public Indecency, a Summary Offense.

“2. “Nudity” means the showing of the human male or female genital
[sic], pubic area or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering; the
showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any
part of the nipple; the exposure of any device, costume, or covering which
gives the appearance of or simulates the genitals, pubic hair, natal cleft,