The New York Court of Appeals issued a one-sentence order. It affirmed a lower court's decision in *People v. Santorelli*. The ruling stated that the state's 1907 anti-toplessness law, Section 245.01 of the Penal Law, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the state constitution. The law had made it a violation for a woman to expose 'that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola.' The court found no compelling state interest to justify treating men and women differently in this regard.
The case began with seven women who staged a topless protest at a public park in Rochester in 1986. They were arrested. Their defense, led by attorney Martha Ballou, argued the statute was outdated gender discrimination. The trial court agreed, noting the law was based on 'archaic and stereotypic notions' of women's roles. The state appealed, and lost. The decision did not create an absolute right; it still allowed for regulations based on context, such as lewd behavior or specific location restrictions. But the core principle was established: a woman's bare chest was not inherently indecent.
The impact was measured. Few women chose to go topless in public afterwards. The victory was largely symbolic, a point of legal parity rather than a social revolution. It removed a codified form of gender bias and set a precedent cited in similar cases in other states. The ruling framed public decency not as a function of specific anatomy, but of conduct. It shifted the legal gaze from the body to the behavior.