DAYTONA BEACH, FL — Bare-breasted protester Elizabeth Book has won her appeal and the city’s case against her should be done. The Fifth District Court of Appeals denied the city’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari and the government going after this woman for exposing her tits in public, is hopefully a chapter in Book’s life that is finished.Book was originally charged under a city ordinance banning public nudity after going topless during a “Bike Week” biker rally in March 2004. The arrest came despite an exception contained in the pertinent Daytona Beach ordinance that allows for public nudity in the course of a political demonstration, or where such conduct is protected by the First Amendment.
Book was represented by well-known First Amendment attorney Lawrence G. Walters. Asked what his client believed that she gained from the case, Walters told YNOT, “Firstly, she gained her freedom to express herself in the manner of her choice. That was the primary goal of this long process. She has also called significant attention to her issues of gender equality and overzealous law enforcement against young females in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has lost substantially in this process, as well. Besides the unfair, negative comments made against her by various government officials in the media, she lost her job and has had difficulty finding substitute employment, given the attention this case has gotten. But Liz is a freedom fighter, and there was nothing that would have stopped her from seeing these cases through to the end.”
Asked about how Book felt that the case benefited the community, Walters said, “The City of Daytona Beach has been getting away with profiting from vulnerable female tourists who get caught up in the moment of revelry and expose their breasts, for years. Many of them walk away with a criminal record, and some are emotionally devastated. Ms. Book wants to change this, and to demonstrate that women’s breasts should not be objectified through these discriminatory laws, but should be recognized as a simple difference in anatomy. European cultures have gotten past this obsession with breasts, and she’s certain that American’s can too. But you have to start somewhere, and winning the right to protest topless is a good start. Her actions have also educated the community that you can fight city hall, and sometimes you can win.”
Asked about Book’s future plans to bare her boobs in the name of freedom, Walters smiled and said, “I don’t have knowledge of any specific protests, but knowing Liz the way I do, I suspect that she will exercise her First Amendment rights to their fullest extent, at her earliest opportunity.”
