The News Minute | September 21, 2014 6.54 am IST

An American court has ruled that the banning the photography of people without their consent to arouse any person was an intrusion of a person’s private right to be aroused.

According to a report in The Independent: “The Texas Court of Appeals ruled 8-1 to strike down part of a law which bans taking images of another person in public without their consent and with the intention to “arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person”, criticising the “paternalistic” intrusion into peoples’ private right to be aroused.”

The report quoted presiding judge Sharon Keller as saying: “Protecting someone who appears in public from being the object of sexual thoughts seems to be the sort of ‘paternalistic interest in regulating the defendants mind’ the First Amendment was designed to guard against.”

Rights activists however, say that the ruling protects predators instead of protecting victims whereas those defending the ruling argue that the law does not differentiate between “up the skirt” photography and those who merely take photographs of people in public places.