“The Jackson County jail’s sexist, protest-inducing, lawsuit-inviting practice of making some female attorneys take off their bras to get through its metal detector mostly died out in June — after the machine’s settings mysteriously seemed to change without explanation following a public backlash.

But going forward, the women attorneys, who depend on access to clients that is equal to their male colleagues’, can’t be expected to cede their legal and constitutional rights to the vagaries of a fickle device.

So Sunday, after a ludicrous series of extended delays and protracted negotiations, the jail is set to institute a formal policy of secondary checks — pat downs and wanding — for all lawyers who sign a consent form.

It’s hoped the agreement will avert costly lawsuits the county was likely to lose, as well as end an embarrassing, archaic assault on women’s rights: While female lawyers with underwire bras had been asked to take them off to pass the screening, men sailed through in belts, ties and shoelaces to see their clients. The practice was humiliating personally and debilitating professionally.”