A federal appeals court in Richmond on Wednesday unanimously upheld an Ocean City, Md., law that allows bare-chested men to sunbathe at its public beaches but prohibits women from doing the same.

       A group of women who challenged the town’s ordinance said the measure unfairly discriminated against them, violating their constitutional rights. The 2017 ordinance prohibits men and women from showing certain parts of the body in public, but prohibits only women from baring their breasts.

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       The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit drew on a large number of previous cases across the country to say that the popular resort town was within its rights to protect the public’s “moral sensibilities.”

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       The court, citing previous case law, said those sensibilities are shared by a substantial number of people who prefer not “to be exposed willy-nilly to public displays of various portions of their fellow citizens’ anatomies that traditionally in this society have been regarded as erogenous zones.”

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       The town took action after Chelsea Eline, who is one of the plaintiffs in the case, alerted Ocean City police and other officials in the summer of 2017 that she intended to sunbathe topless, claiming it was her constitutional right to do so.

       Women challenge Ocean City, Md.'s law banning topless sunbathing

       Eline and the other four plaintiffs argued that the law unfairly targeted women in violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. They also argued that times have changed, as have standards for what is deemed to be acceptable beachwear. At trial before a lower court, they also offered evidence, based on thousands of photographs, showing how swimsuits evolved from the pre-bikini days when men waded into surf in full-length body suits and women wore stockings and dresses.

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       But the town, mindful of its reputation as a family-friendly resort, argued that its ban on female topless sunbathing was not interfering with sexual choice or behavior but simply regulating public nudity in line with previous court rulings. Officials in the town of more than 7,000 residents testified that they had heard from many members of the public who supported the ban on topless sunbathing.

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       Wednesday’s opinion, upholding a decision from a federal district court judge in Maryland, notes that the plaintiffs had declined to testify or offer evidence that public sensibilities had shifted toward support for topless sunbathing. They relied instead on an expert witness who opined that the town’s ordinance “fails to acknowledge important similarities between female and male breasts.” The plaintiffs also cited peer-reviewed studies that said discriminating against bare-chested displays between men and women could have harmful secondary effects such as discouraging breastfeeding.

       The appellate case was heard by Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory and Judges Barbara Milano Keenan and A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.