BATON ROUGE -- Senators said they disapproved of revealing fashion styles, but rejected a bill Tuesday that would make it a crime to wear one's pants too low.

Dallas Morning News

A Senate judicial committee voted down Sen. Derrick Shepherd's bill to make it illegal to wear, in public, clothing that "intentionally exposes undergarments or intentionally exposes any portion of the pubic hair, cleft of the buttocks or genitals."

Violators would face a fine of up to $175 and eight days of community service.

Exceptions would include thong swim suits and clothing worn in fashion shows.

Sen. Yvonne Dorsey said she has studied the issue and found that the people who adopt the droopy pants style are emulating the beltless look of prison inmates.

Dorsey said she disliked the style but considered fashion a freedom of speech issue and wanted to defend the public's right to wear their clothes as they wish.

"When we begin to take the freedom of speech away ... I think we're doing something that's just not right," said Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge.

Shepherd said the state should take a stand against droopy pants, which he called just one example of widespread indecency in contemporary clothing styles.

"The shorts are getting shorter, the tops are getting smaller, the cleavage is getting larger," said Shepherd, D-Marrero. "When are we going to say, 'Enough is enough'?"

Sen. A.G. Crowe said government should stay out of questions of fashion.

Shepherd's bill is "just too much government intervention in our personal lives," said Crowe, R-Slidell.

The committee debate turned into a discussion of revealing clothing in general, with Dorsey at one point lamenting that too many women wear overly revealing blouses.

"You could almost write a book, and put the book inside the cleavage," she said.

With no objection, the Senate judiciary panel voted against moving the measure to the floor.

Shepherd tried and failed to pass a similar bill in 2004. That measure died in the face of opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union.

About a dozen Louisiana towns and cities have enacted or are considering bans on such pants.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)