Massachusetts State Supreme Court: Perverts Have a First Amendment Right to Snap Photos up Women’s Skirts on Train

From CBS Boston.

Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that a man accused of secretly snapping photos up a woman’s skirt on an MBTA train did not break the law.

The State Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday dismissed charges against Michael Robertson of Andover, who was arrested in August 2010 by Transit Police.

Meet the puerile little pervert who uses his cellphone for clandestine porno :

Officers had set up a sting on the Green Line after getting reports that Robertson was using his cellphone to take photos and video up female rider’s skirts and dresses.

Robertson’s attorneys argued that he was protected by the First Amendment.

So-called Peeping Tom laws protect people from being photographed in dressing rooms and bathrooms when nude or partially nude, but the way the law is written, it does not protect clothed people in public areas, the court said. The SJC ruling went on to suggest that the act in this case should be illegal, noting other states including New York and Florida have explicit laws criminalizing public upskirting.

Under the law, the state has to prove five criteria:

“That the defendant willfully photographed, videotaped, or electronically surveilled; the subject was another person who was nude or partially nude; the defendant did so with the intent to secretly conduct or hide his photographing activity; the defendant conducted such activity when the other person was in a place and circumstance where the person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in not being “so photographed”; and the defendant did so without the other person’s knowledge or consent.”

The SJC decision says a woman on the MBTA “wearing a skirt, dress, or the like covering these parts of her body is not a person who is ‘partially nude,’ no matter what is or is not underneath the skirt by way of underwear or other clothing.”

So, in other words, by wearing a dress or a skirt, she asked for it. Kinda like rape, right Massachusetts?

……justices ruled that because the alleged incident occurred on a public trolley, there is not a reasonable expectation of privacy. They noted that while the prosecution’s “proposition is eminently reasonable,” the current writing of the law that Robertson was charged under does not cover that particular circumstance.

“Because the MBTA is a public transit system operating in a public place and uses cameras, the two alleged victims here were not in a place and circumstance where they reasonably would or could have had an expectation of privacy,” a draft of the ruling stated.

Apparently, that includes a reasonable expectation of protection against a degenerate on public transportation.

Prosecutors said after the ruling that they planed to take the matter to the Legislature and request a re-write to the current state law.

You’d better hope it’s rewritten before all the lowlifes descend on the MBTA for a photo op.