Is It Legal to Drive Naked in Missouri & Illinois? – Sort Of
I've never asked this question before, but somebody else obviously has. Is it legal to drive naked in Missouri and Illinois? The short answer remarkably is yes, but it's complicated.
A few things I need to be clear about from the start. First, I wasn't trying to learn this. I found it while researching something entirely different. (Editor's Note: yeah, right). Second, never take anything I say or write as real legal advice. On a good day, what I do is entertainment. That's on a good day. The other days, well...
With those BIG disclaimers out of the way, I saw this shared by Reader's Digest. It was their article "Things You Think Are Illegal, But Aren't". One of the highlights says "Drive Naked" where they say the following:
If you want to get behind the wheel of your car buck naked, that’s your prerogative. It’s totally legal.
But...but...but...(or is it butt?), that's state law. Apparently. They add that if someone sees you and complains, you can be charged with public lewdness. Same goes for someone seeing you get in our out of your vehicle. I guess if you're particularly adventuresome and have a garage with a door operated by remote, you could maybe get away with this. I said MAYBE.
Another thing to emphasize. I didn't get interested enough in this to find out if there are city ordinances that would preclude attempting to drive "El natural". Again, it's not legal advice, just state laws that I found...curious.
Out of pure paranoia that the person who wrote the Reader's Digest article was wrong, the website Dirt Legal (sounds like a trustworthy lawyer site) also says that driving naked is legal.
One final thing. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS and then say I told you it was OK. Since my family is kind of related to the real John Henry "Doc" Holliday (an outlaw), maybe I'm not the one you turn to for real life-altering legal thoughts, K?