Judge Says County Cannot Bar Playboy Magazine in Firehouses

A federal judge Thursday struck down a Los Angeles County order that forbade male firefighters to read or possess Playboy magazine in firehouses, ruling that the anti-sexual-harassment measure violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and press.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson issued an order barring the county from enforcing its ban on Playboy against Fire Capt. Steven W. Johnson, who brought a lawsuit challenging the policy. The judge found that the ban placed “severe limitations on Johnson’s 1st Amendment rights.”

County officials failed to prove their argument “that quiet reading of Playboy contributes to a sexually harassing atmosphere,” Wilson announced at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Downtown Los Angeles.

Attorneys for the county said they will probably appeal Wilson’s ruling.

“It’s a win for both sides,” said Johnson, a 27-year-veteran who was represented by American Civil Liberties Union and Playboy attorneys, “because now both sides can choose what they want to read.”

Johnson, a resident of Corona del Mar, said he plans to have a copy of Playboy in hand when he returns to work Monday at his station in Lake Los Angeles, in the far northeastern corner of the Antelope Valley.

Fire Department officials banned Playboy and other magazines featuring pictures of nude or skimpily dressed women from all work locations in 1992, saying the measure was needed to prevent development of a “sexually charged environment” for the department’s 11 female firefighters, who work with about 2,400 men.

During Tuesday’s trial, one county official testified that the ban would also apply to certain issues of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated magazines that contained pictures of nude or partially nude women. Whether county fire officials will apply Wilson’s ruling to all magazines remains unknown, because the judge’s order specifies only Playboy.

Johnson’s attorneys argued that the ban violated his constitutional rights, and that although the county may have had good intentions, the policy was vague and overly broad.

“The department said they didn’t want Capt. Johnson reading something they didn’t want him thinking about,” said ACLU attorney Paul L. Hoffman after the hearing Thursday. “When you start allowing that kind of thought control, you’re going down the wrong track.”

Firefighters, who were ordered by department headquarters not to comment on the decision, had mixed reactions but asked to remain anonymous.

“Our department was totally wrong,” one captain said. “There are nude pictures in National Geographic. Will we ban that next?”

Another firefighter protested that the attention given the dispute will mislead the public. “Where I work, we don’t have time to read anything. We don’t just read dirty books, play cards and sit around the station. We responded to more than 11,000 calls last year.”

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU, declared Thursday’s ruling a victory for Johnson and his desire to quietly read Playboy at his station.

“We applaud the county for developing a policy on sexual harassment,” Ripston said. “But the right to read is something the 1st Amendment protects.”

Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, described Wilson’s ruling as “simply wrong.”

“What the ACLU and this judge have shown is that living, breathing women’s rights count less in this system,” Bruce said.

Times staff writer Chip Johnson contributed to this story.