District Judge Rules In Favor Of Bikini Baristas Who Claimed City Ordinance Violated Their Equal Protection Clause Rights

  The city government in Everett, Washington, violated the 14th Amendment rights of bikini baristas through its ordinances that attempt to regulate what baristas are allowed to wear while on the job, according to an order by a U.S. District Judge in Western Washington, which obtained by CNN.   

  The baristas who worked at Hillbilly Hotties, as well as the cafe’s owner, sued the city of Everett in 2019 after the city passed two ordinances, according to previous CNN reports.   

  According to the order, the city’s “Dress Code Ordinance” required employees, owners and operators of “quick service establishments” to cover the upper and lower body.  The ordinance defined quick service establishments as coffee shops, fast food restaurants, delis, food trucks, cafeterias and all other drive-thru restaurants.   

  The city’s “Lescent Conduct Ordinance” expanded the definition of lewd act to include exposure of specifically female upper body parts and created the new crime of facilitating lewd conduct, according to the ordinance.   

  The barista’s lawsuit claimed the city’s ordinances violated his 1st and 14th amendment rights, CNN reported.   

  According to the CNN report, litigation over the ordinance has been up and down the court system since 2017, as the case moved from the district to federal court and back to district court.   

  In the order filed earlier this month, US District Judge Ricardo Martinez found that Everett’s Dress Code Provisions did in fact violate the “Equal Protection Clause” under the 14th Amendment.   

  “This ordinance clearly treats women differently than men by banning a wide variety of women’s clothing, not just pasties and G-strings or bikinis.  The restrictions are so detailed that they effectively dictate the clothing women must wear in quick service establishments,” according to Martinez’s ruling.   

  “Overall, the City has failed to demonstrate how this disparate treatment of women is materially related to the achievement of the Ordinance’s stated objectives.  Summary judgment in favor of Plaintiffs is warranted on this claim,” Martinez wrote in the order.   

  CNN has arrived in the city of Everett.   

  Everett’s bikini barista coffee stands have been under scrutiny for nearly a decade, when police discovered in 2013 that some stands were fronts for prostitution and lewd behavior, according to previous CNN reports.