Healey Finds No Conflict

AG Approves Nantucket’s Topfree Decision

Massachusetts Attorney-General and Governor-Elect Maura Healey

Massachusetts Attorney-General Maura Healey has approved Nantuckett’s decision to allow women as well as men to go shirtless on its beaches, finding that the bylaw change approved at town meeting does not conflict with the state’s laws or its constitution.

“We approve the Town’s vote authorizing any person to go topless on any public or private beach in Nantucket because we discern no conflict between the vote and the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth,” Healey wrote in a six-page opinion sent to Nantucket Town Clerk Nancy Holmes. “The Town has the authority to choose what activities it will allow on town beaches, and we must approve any by-law reflecting such choice unless the by-law poses a clear conflict with the Constitution or laws of the Commonwealth, which Article 71 does not.”