For now, Jackson residents can wear their pants any way they want to.
The City Council voted 4-2 against a plan Tuesday that would have made it unlawful for people to wear pants below the waistline exposing their underwear.
The council members who voted against the saggy-pants ban said it likely was unconstitutional.
But Mayor Frank Melton, who joined the council meeting via telephone from Texas, said he will issue an executive order instituting the dress code.
"I certainly respect the Constitution," Melton said, "but we have some issues that are much bigger than the Constitution."
Councilman Kenneth Stokes sponsored the saggy-pants ordinance. He said many of the young men who wear saggy pants also get in trouble at school or with police.
He said the ordinance was an attempt to "save all the children we can."
"In these neighborhoods, they're showing their naked behinds," Stokes said. "It's embarrassing."
While many of the other council members agreed that saggy pants are undesirable, most said the ordinance likely would violate the U.S. Constitution.
The office of the city attorney released a three-page memo examining whether the ordinance was lawful. It says "it would be doubtful that (the ordinance) would pass constitutional muster."
With that legal opinion in hand, Councilman Marshand Crisler said it would be unproductive to approve the ordinance.
"It would be a waste of time, paper and our resources to do that," he said.
Other communities have passed ordinances banning saggy pants, including Delcambre and Mansfield in Louisiana. In Riviera Beach, Fla., voters passed a referendum in support of a saggy-pants ban, but a judge has said he thinks the ban is unconstitutional and released an offender from jail.
Jackson police officials have been noncommittal when discussing whether officers have time to respond to saggy-pants offenders.
When reached after Tuesday's meeting, Assistant Chief Lee Vance said: "Whatever city ordinances are passed by the council or mayor, we will do our best to enforce them."
Melton said his executive order will not call on offenders to be put in jail. Instead, he said he envisions police officers taking young men with sagging pants home to their parents to talk about the problem.
The mayor said it's a change worth fighting for.
"I am willing to go to court on this particular issue," said Melton, who was at home in Texas with his family recovering from heart problems. He is expected to return to Jackson later this week.
Melton has been in and out of the hospital three times since November. He has been diagnosed with end-stage cardiomyopathy, a serious condition that prevents the heart from properly pumping blood.
Melton is scheduled to stand trial in federal court next month on civil rights charges related to a police-style raid on a Jackson duplex in 2006.
The state attorney general's office has not issued an opinion on whether the mayor has the authority to outlaw saggy pants through executive order.
The office of Attorney General Jim Hood has come out against some past attempts by Melton to legislate with executive order. For example, Hood's office issued an opinion saying the mayor could not ban gun shows through executive order.
Council President Leslie Burl McLemore said he thinks Hood would come out against this order as well.
"I really don't think the executive order the mayor issues will be worth the paper it's printed on," he said.
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