LOS ANGELES : Fire Department to Appeal Ruling on Playboy Ban

The Los Angeles County Fire Department will appeal a judge’s ruling that it is unconstitutional for the department to forbid firefighters to read Playboy magazine at work, a regulation meant to discourage sexism in firehouses.

Les Tolnai, a senior deputy county counsel who last month unsuccessfully defended in court the Fire Department’s right to enforce the ban, said he filed the notice of appeal Monday with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

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

After a one-day trial last month, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson issued an order barring the county from enforcing the ban on Fire Department Capt. Steven W. Johnson, who brought a lawsuit challenging the policy.