Denver: A Colorado judge has blocked a town's law against women going topless, saying the law is likely unconstitutional.
US District Judge R Brooke Jackson said on Tuesday that Fort Collins' ordinance was based on gender discrimination and issued an injunction against its enforcement.
The college town's indecency code makes it a crime for women but not men to show their nipples.
The law "perpetuates a stereotype ingrained in our society that female breasts are primarily objects of sexual desire, whereas male breasts are not", Jackson wrote.
Judge Jackson accused city council members of falling prey to discriminatory thinking when they voted unanimously in 2015 to keep a law that prohibits the display of female breasts, rejecting a growing movement to remove gender-specific indecency codes.
The home town of Colorado State University had no cases on record of women being charged with the crime of going topless, and it makes an exception for nursing mothers.
Otherwise, it was a $US250 ($326) fine for a woman over the age of 10 in Fort Collins to display her breast "below the top of the nipple".
Two women sued over the Fort Collins topless ban. Other cities in Colorado, including Denver, have no gender-specific indecency laws.
The decision comes on the same day as the Trump administration revoked Obama-era guidelines on transgender bathrooms.
AP