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After a five year legal battle, a city ordinance deemed to “target” bikini-clad baristas outside Seattle was ruled unconstitutional in U.S. District Court as the judge found “It is difficult to imagine how this Ordinance would be equally applied to men…”

Jovanna Edge is the owner of XO Espresso and similar coffee stands in Everett, Washinton, offering their clientele beverages served up by scantily clad baristas. Since 2017, Edge has been in dispute with the city over ordinances on dress code and lewd conduct that U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez found were “passed in part to have an adverse impact” on her business and those like it.

In a 19-page ruling, Martinez wrote, “There is evidence in the record that the bikini barista profession, clearly a target of the Ordinance, is entirely or almost entirely female. It is difficult to imagine how this Ordinance would be equally applied to men and women in practice. It appears designed to ban not just ‘pasties and g-strings’ or bikinis, but a wide range of women’s clothing.”

Previously, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman had also ruled in favor of the bikini baristas on the grounds of the First and 14th Amendments, but in 2019 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the city saying, “We stress that plaintiffs deny that they engage in nude dancing and erotic performances, thereby disavowing the First Amendment protections available for that conduct.”

“The baristas working at these stands wear what they call ‘bikinis,’ but the City describes them as ‘nearly nude employees,’ and the district court made clear that their attire is significantly more revealing than a typical bikini,” the Ninth Circuit ruling continued. “The district court’s finding that at least some of the baristas wear little more than pasties and g-strings is well supported by the record.”

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/10/31/sexy-baristas-in-skimpy-bikinis-win-court-case-can-serve-coffee-in-uniforms-city-officials-called-lewd-1302818/