A Washington, D.C., judge ruled on Thursday that a man who took pictures up women’s skirts at the Lincoln Memorial did not violate her privacy, Washington area TV station WJLA reported.
“This Court finds that no individual clothed and positioned in such a manner in a public area in broad daylight in the presence of countless other individuals could have a reasonable expectation of privacy,” Judge Juliet McKenna wrote in her ruling dismissing the case against Christopher Cleveland.
McKenna wrote that in this case, Cleveland didn’t have to go to “extraordinary lengths” to take the pictures.
“The images captured were not ‘incidental glimpses’ and in fact were images that were exposed to the public without requiring any extraordinary lengths whatsoever, to view,” she wrote.
She did frown on Cleveland’s “repellent and disturbing” behavior, however.
In September, a Texas court overturned part of a law that banned taking upskirt photos “with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of the defendant.”
In March, after a Massachusetts court ruled that that it was legal for someone to take upskirt photos on public transportation, the state legislature passed a ban on upskirt photos.