LOS ANGELES COUNTY : NOW Files Brief Backing Fire Dept. Ban on Playboy

The National Organization for Women has filed court papers in support of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s sexual harassment policy banning Playboy and other adult magazines in fire stations.

NOW filed a friend of the court brief in U.S. District Court this week in the lawsuit brought last month by Fire Capt. Steven Johnson and the ACLU that challenges the policy as unconstitutional.

Johnson, who works in a small, all-male fire station in Lake Los Angeles, said the policy violates his freedom to read his favorite publication. But Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles NOW chapter, argues that firefighters can read whatever they want when they are not in the workplace. A hearing has been postponed until Jan. 24.