Nude Dancing at an "anti-Christmas" protest in Harvard Square is not Protected by the Constitution

by Robert J. Ambrogi
April 11, 2008

Massachusetts' highest court has stripped a Cambridge woman of her ability to express herself by dancing naked in Harvard Square. Yesterday, the Supreme Judicial Court reinstated felony charges of open and gross lewdness against Ria Ora, who was arrested in June 2005 when she danced nude in Harvard Square as part of an "anti-Christmas" protest. In Commonwealth v. Ora, the SJC reversed the trial court judge, who found that the criminal statute's "blanket prohibition against public nudity" (pun intended?) was a violation of the First Amendment. the rest image