From now on, people in Texas are free to take photographs of anything in public, even if it's up someone's skirt, after the state's highest criminal court ruled that such photos are protected by freedom of speech.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals struck down last Wednesday part of the state's "improper photography or visual recording" law by ruling that such pictures - even "upskirt" photos of women - are protected by the First Amendment, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The court determined the law was "paternalistic" and punishes a photographer based on the person's thoughts.
"The camera is essentially the photographer's pen and paintbrush," Presiding Judge Sharon Keller wrote in the court's opinion. "A person's purposeful creation of photographs and visual recordings is entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the photographs and visual recordings themselves."
Under the state's penal code, it's illegal to photograph or broadcast an image of someone "with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person" without their consent.
The case was brought by Ronald Thompson, who in 2011 was charged with 26 counts of improper photography after he was caught taking underwater pictures of children at a San Antonio Sea World.
Police seized his camera and found 73 pictures of children in their bathing suits, "with most of the photographs targeting the children's breast and buttocks areas," The Guardian reported. Thompson filed a motion against the charges claiming the state's penal code violates his right to free speech.
State prosecutors argued that First Amendment protection does not apply because a picture is "nothing more than making a chemical or electronic record" and is not entirely expressive, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Thompson's defense attorneys argued that the law is "the stuff of Orwellian thought-crime" and that its wording did not specify the difference between "upskirting" and "merely photographing a girl in a skirt walking down the street," which would make paparazzi criminals.
The Court of Criminal Appeals agreed. Experts now predict the ruling could affect similar cases that are awaiting decisions, such as one in Harris County where a man was charged for leaving a cellphone in a dressing room that caught footage of a girl's behind in 2012.
Ronnie Royston, of Tomball, was sentenced to four years of probation for leaving the cellphone in the dressing room, according to the Houston Chronicle. His case is pending appeal.
