09-02-2006, 12:16 PM
DALLAS - Ron Price, a Dallas school board member, has asked the City Council to look at strenghtening a law to go after people who wear baggy pants and expose their underwear.
"I think it's disrespectful, it's dishonorable and it's disgusting," said Price, who made the recommendation last week to the City Council. "I have no problem with the top of your Hanes label being shown. My problem is when grown men walk about the city with pants below their buttocks."
Council members have asked the city attorney to look into the issue. City Attorney Tom Perkins said this week he's investigating the legalities and will report back to the council.
But experts say that such a law might not hold up, so to speak.
It would be too vague, said Robert Jarvis, constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He said that for a criminal law to be constitutional, a person of average intelligence must know what's being prohibited.
"Who's to say how baggy pants can be before they're 'baggy pants,'" he said. "There's just no way to regulate these things."
Such proposals haven't made it too far in recent years. In Virginia, the Senate dropped a bill last year the would have fined those with pants so low their underwear was exposed. A similar bill from a Louisiana state representative failed to pass in 2004. And such proposals haven't faired well at the city level either.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060902/ap_on_fe_st/baggy_pants
"I think it's disrespectful, it's dishonorable and it's disgusting," said Price, who made the recommendation last week to the City Council. "I have no problem with the top of your Hanes label being shown. My problem is when grown men walk about the city with pants below their buttocks."
Council members have asked the city attorney to look into the issue. City Attorney Tom Perkins said this week he's investigating the legalities and will report back to the council.
But experts say that such a law might not hold up, so to speak.
It would be too vague, said Robert Jarvis, constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He said that for a criminal law to be constitutional, a person of average intelligence must know what's being prohibited.
"Who's to say how baggy pants can be before they're 'baggy pants,'" he said. "There's just no way to regulate these things."
Such proposals haven't made it too far in recent years. In Virginia, the Senate dropped a bill last year the would have fined those with pants so low their underwear was exposed. A similar bill from a Louisiana state representative failed to pass in 2004. And such proposals haven't faired well at the city level either.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060902/ap_on_fe_st/baggy_pants
