NJ Moves to Ban Upskirt Cams

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

SKIRTSSenate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. wants to criminalize “upskirting,” Save Jerseyans, in the wake of a highly-publicized Massachusetts Supreme Court opinion on Wednesday in which that state’s high court ruled “upskirting” legal.

The Bay State is already moving to correct it.

Sen. Kean wants the New Jersey legislature to act preemptively.

“We must do everything possible to protect women in New Jersey from this sickening act, which like other offensive actions involving photos or videos has the potential to be popularized by the internet if that hasn’t happened here already,” said Kean (R-Union, Somerset, Morris). “We need to make it clear that this is an illegal act in New Jersey that will not be tolerated.”

The anti-upskirting legislation is still in development, but Sen. Kean says he’s exploring various options including includign an explicit prohibition by amending New Jersey’s invasion of privacy statute (2C:14-9).

The Senator gave himself a self-imposed March 17th deadline to introduce the measure.

“I look forward to working across the aisle to get this passed immediately,” Kean added.

“Plain view” doctrine is a common exception to an individual’s privacy rights. It’s hard to imagine how a woman wearing a universally-accepted piece of clothing over her bottom half doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy down there (as the defense successfully argued).

Would it be okay for a drone to take a down-shirt photograph of a woman wearing anything less-concealing than a turtle neck or sweatshirt?

Think it through, people. 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

3 Comments

  1. So, according to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, if a woman is showering in a public shower (such as a gym or exercise club) she is, after all in “plain view” in a public place. Would that make photographing and distributing such photographs legal? It might in Massachusetts. We’ve spent generations laughing at Mississippi. Now, thanks to the politicians and courts in Massachusetts (not to mention the voters — the only ones who voted for McGovern, after all) Massachusetts can assume the mantle as the butt of national jokes for generations to come. In plain view, of course, so we can photograph it.

  2. Well Stuart, they did make a move today to change the law. I guess there is only so much embarrassment the progressive state of Massachusetts can take at once 🙁

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