Rejoice! Wearing Saggy Pants Is No Longer Illegal in Florida
For thirteen years, it was considered illegal for Florida residents to wear "saggy pants" that revealed any part of their underwear. Last Wednesday (September 9), however, the Opa-locka City Commission finally repealed the legal ban against underwear-baring baggy pants.
According to the Associated Press, the original 2007 legislation, as well as a 2013 ordinance that stated both women and men could receive civil citations for wearing pants that exposed their undergarments, are no longer lingering over the wardrobes of Floridians.
However, to make the repeal official, the vote must be approved again at a subsequent commission meeting.
Over the years, signs warning folks of the rule have been posted all over the state. Famously in Miami, there are signs posted featuring an image of two men wearing their pants hanging down low. The caption reads, "No ifs, ands or butts ... It’s the city law!”
Miami Vice Mayor Chris Davis himself sponsored the repeal. He said that he never supported the legislation to begin with. “I felt it disproportionately affected a certain segment of our population, which is young, African-American men,” Davis told the Miami Herald.
This, too, was the temperature from a lot of Florida residents when the law was first imposed. At the time, the ACLU even called it a "ridiculous waste of public resources,” saying it would “impose overly harsh penalties for victimless behavior."