Court OKs Pinups In The Stir

A federal appeals court struck down an Arizona county law that said jail inmates could not have pictures of frontal nudity. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 3-0 that the ban is so broad that it would preclude prisoners from having pictures of classical art or from National Geographic. And that's unconstitutional, the court said.\n Maricopa County argued it had passed the law in 1993 because jail inmates were using sexually explicit magazines to taunt female guards.\n Judge Betty Fletcher said the court had its doubts that all nude pictures are likely to cause violence or be used to harass. "Regardless of whether the county's policy would be constitutional if applied to ban Playboy magazine, it is not constitutional to ban all depictions of frontal nudity," she wrote.\n A lawyer for the inmate who sued the county had pointed out that, under the county law, a photo of the bare-breasted goddess of justice in the courtroom would be illegal in the hands of a jail inmate.\n The county is expected to ask for a rehearing or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.