Police have stopped enforcing a local anti-prostitution ordinance after a county-level judge ruled it unconstitutional.
The City has until mid-August to appeal the ruling but has not indicated whether it will do so.
“[The] City Attorney’s Office is aware of the court’s opinion, and we are considering the city’s options,” Dallas spokesperson Catherine Cuellar explained, per The Dallas Morning News.
As reported by The Dallas Express, County Criminal Court of Appeals Judge Kristin Wade found that the Dallas ordinance was too vague to be reasonably or fairly applied, raising constitutional concerns.
Under the statute, a person can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to $500 for loitering in a public place for “the purpose of inducing, enticing, soliciting, or procuring another to commit an act of prostitution.”
Furthermore, citations can be issued if the “person is a known prostitute or panderer, repeatedly beckons to, stops or attempts to stop, or engages passers-by in conversation, or repeatedly stops or attempts to stop motor vehicle operators by hailing, waving of arms, or any other bodily gesture.”
Judge Wade suggested, however, that the ordinance left too much up to the judgment and opinion of the law enforcement officer, potentially leading to people being arrested for wearing immodest clothes, talking to someone on the street, or other non-illegal activities.
“Everything about this ordinance is highly dependent on the mindset of an arresting officer,” she wrote. “The ordinance also makes it illegal for a woman in a high crime area to summon a cab if a police officer is watching.”
“An ordinance is overbroad when it punishes constitutionally protected conduct as well as illegal activity,” she explained.
Gabrielle Perry, the founder of the Thurman Perry Foundation, celebrated the ruling.
“Laws surrounding policing what women wear date back eons. The targeting of ALL women, cis and trans, is present in anti-sex worker laws,” Perry tweeted.
“If a cop wants to sexually harass/assault you, the law allows him to blame it on your outfit,” she claimed.
Similarly, Roy Atwood, a local Methodist pastor and advocate, said on social media, “Glad to see Dallas’s ban on literally ‘looking like a hooker’ get struck down.”
“People should be able to dress however they want without worrying about how cops will treat them,” the minister added.
However, Dallas Justice Now, a local activist group, asked, “How would the judge feel if the soliciting and the services were being performed in front of her doorstep?”
The ruling comes as more Americans are expressing frustration that laws are not being enforced.
A recent national poll by Harvard found that 71% of citizens believed “minor offenses” and other crimes should be punished, as reported by The Dallas Express.
