Tennessee judges: It’s OK to film clothed women in public

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) — Three appeals court judges in Tennessee have ruled that it isn’t illegal to film women fully clothed in public without their permission.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Sunday that the Court of Appeals judges wrote separate but identical opinions last month when dismissing unlawful photography convictions against David Eric Lambert.

Lambert was convicted of the charges, along with a sexual battery count, after he was found to have taken “close-up” images of women in stores around Kingsport in 2016 for sexual gratification.

He contended that he didn’t commit a crime because he took the images in public.

The judges agreed that there’s no expectation of privacy in public places in the digital age.