Man cleared of charges in airport strip

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PORTLAND, Ore., July 19 (UPI) -- An Oregon man who stripped naked to protest airport security screenings has been cleared of indecent exposure charges.

Multnomah County Judge David Rees cleared John Brennan, 50, of Portland, of indecent exposure charges, agreeing with the man's defense that he was practicing his freedom of speech when he stripped down at a Portland International Airport checkpoint to protest what he views as invasive Transportation Security Administration screening procedures, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Thursday.

"It is the speech itself that the state is seeking to punish, and that it cannot do," Rees said.

Prosecutors argued Brennan had violated a Portland city ordinance banning the exposure of one's genitals in front of the opposite sex in a public place.