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The Constitutional Right to Wear Low-Riding Pants?

11:48 AM, Mar 28, 2008 • By JAIME SNEIDER
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The NAACP is now claiming that legislation to ban students from wearing low-riding pants is unconstitutional discrimination. That's right. The Civil War and the 14th amendment have been reduced to vindicating the rights of people to wear low-riding pants, leaving their skivvies exposed to the light of day.

The Florida branch of the NAACP says a bill that would ban students from wearing their pants too low could lead to more legal trouble for black males.

Orlando Senator Gary Siplin's bill was approved 28-11 last week by the Florida Senate.

The bill calls for no criminal sanctions, but it would prohibit students from wearing pants low so that they expose undergarments.

Violators would receive a warning for a first offense, and suspensions from school would be issued for each subsequent infraction.

NAACP President Adora Obi Nweze called it a "clearly discriminatory bill.''

Other groups such as the Advancement Project, a Washington social advocacy organization, say the proposal is directed primarily at black males and could lead to arrests.

Needless to say, the claim of discrimination is questionable as a matter of Constitutional law. Although many of the legislators who have introduced these bills represent predominantly black neighborhoods, the laws are framed in racially neutral terms. I would also argue it is unclear that they will have a discriminatory effect since plenty of white youths have appropriated this fashion.

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