10/23/2009 - The California Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by nudists that challenged the State Park’s repeal of the “Cahill/Harrison Policy” governing nudity in the state parks system. The department announced last year that it was repealing the Cahill policy with respect to San Onofre State Beach only, but as it now stands, the Parks Department can legally decide to also repeal the policy elsewhere in the state park system in the future, whenever it decides to do so.

Details of this situation and specifics of the Cahill/Harrison Regulation and associated documents may be found on the NAC Web page: www.naturistaction.org/sanonofre.

The Naturist Action Committee (NAC) issued a statement calling the court’s lack of action “a tremendous setback,” but they added “the battle has not ended. [We are]carefully considering [our] remaining options and the ramifications of each. NAC will continue to issue Action Alerts, Advisories and Updates on this issue as circumstances require.”

Our Take on the Situation

None of us on the SCNA Board were surprised that the court refused the case. They refuse thousands each year because they concern topics not important enough to make/change policy. US courts do the same. The appeal was based on Cahill never submitting his "policy" to a state administative office for recording. I suspect there are thousands if not millions of such non-actions by government agencies all over the state. So if they ruled in our favor people could file petitions on all the other areas also, and there would be chaos. Sometimes the courts do things not because the issue isn’t important but they just don’t want the mess afterwards. So as we said, we were not surprised.

The Deptartment of Parks and Recreation (DPR) says this only applies to San Onofre, so we'll see. I think it depends on who is in charge, not only at the top in Parks but also at the individual beach level. If the local Superintendent has been waiting for his chance to shut down the nudity he/she may try to do so next summer, and then the cascade effect we feared will happen at all state beaches and other lands administered by the DPR.

There are plenty of nude beaches that are not state parks, like Pirate's Cove in SLO, and quite a few around San Francisco. And we're quietly working to get a beach back on County land in Santa Barbara. So there will be places to go that are outside the state parks jurisdiction.

AANR posted its response to this news on its web site: “We are committed to diligently working to protect nudity on both public and private lands within the state. We hope that bringing together and joining with all interested parties on this subject will yield long-term results that preserve traditions of nudity in some of the most beautiful settings.” Ironic that this “bringing together” phrase comes from AANR. When the San Onofre ban was first announced by DPR a year ago I know AANR acted alone and sent its Governmental Affairs team to meet with the DPR’s chief deputy. AANR drank the DPR Kool-Aid and believed the bogus and skewed statistics about crime and lewd behavior at the beach. AANR did not challenge it because they went in alone without the Naturist Society, which had a better handle on what was really going on. As a result of that AANR meeting, it appears DPR was emboldened to think the nudist community wouldn’t fight to save their beach.

Since AANR and NAC were not working together, nor presenting the same message to the state, the DPR was able to “divide and conquer” the nudist community. AANR also wrote last week: “Nudity at San Onofre Beach is likely to end in the very near future as a direct consequence.” NAC says “Not necessarily!”

As of this writing, rangers haven’t started ticketing yet at San Onofre, and likely won't until Spring when warmer weather returns. The DPR plan is to intimidate people into putting on their clothes so they don’t have to ticket them and risk a court case. Intimidation and fear has worked well in the past with the members of the nudist public, who don’t want tickets put on their record. Fear of ticketing is how our beaches got closed, one by one, for the past 20 years. Some locals are telling us if tickets start being issued at San Onofre, they may fight them up the court system, since several state court cases since 1977 ruled in favor of nude recreation where it had traditionally been allowed. Another option being considered is to approach DPR to negotiate for some officially designated beaches. This is what we wanted in 1977 when Cahill issued his policy as a "compromise" between nudists and those who opposed us. The political climate has changed in 30+ years, however, and because of this victory, the DPR may not be ready to sit down and talk at all. To succeed, this option may require a change in governors (in 2010) who will appoint a new Parks Chairperson who is friendlier to our cause.

So AANR may have given up, but NAC hasn’t. The fight to save San Onofre is not over yet! We’ll keep you informed.