Breakfast in the Buff

The Defendant lived in a garden-level apartment in Lincoln, Nebraska, fronted by a large picture window facing the street. One morning a neighbor across the way glanced over and saw the Defendant standing at that window, entirely nude, eating his breakfast; she could see him from about mid-thigh up. Police were called, and the Defendant was charged under a city ordinance making it unlawful to commit any "indecent, immodest or filthy act" within view of the public. The real question was not whether the neighbor saw what she saw — it was whether an ordinance forbidding any "indecent, immodest or filthy act" tells an ordinary citizen what, exactly, is against the law.