WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —

Somebody needs to address the etiquette issues involved in holding sidewalk discussions with streetwalkers.

It’s never a topic covered in articles about manners or decorum, and so one never quite knows what to do when that ambulatory practitioner of the world’s oldest profession gives a friendly wave as an invitation for some impromptu chitchat.

Fortunately, a judicial panel at the Fourth District Court of Appeals has tackled this subject in an opinion published this month.

The justices were weighing a challenge to a West Palm Beach law that could best be described as anti-chitchat when it comes to sidewalk prostitutes. The law gave police officers the power to arrest a “known prostitute” if that person “engages passersby in conversation” in an area frequented by prostitutes.

Even an attempt at conversation was illegal under the city law. It gave the officer the power to make a prostitution arrest if the woman “repeatedly beckons to, stops, or attempts to stop” guys in passing cars or pedestrians. It includes movements of “hailing, waving of arms, or any other bodily gesture” that could be construed as an invitation for prostitution.

I was hoping the justices would outline those bodily gestures in greater detail, but this was basically a quickie opinion that reached its conclusion by Page 5.

The justices ruled that the West Palm Beach law was “unconstitutionally overbroad” because it gave police officers too much authority in outlawing behaviors that aren’t in themselves criminal.

“Constitutionally protected conduct like waving at passersby and sauntering down a street could be interpreted by officers as constituting conduct which evinces a ‘specific intent’ to solicit prostitution,” the court’s opinion read.

In other words, you can’t just assume somebody’s a prostitute just because she’s doing way too much sauntering or beckoning.

Perhaps, she’s just hoping somebody will stop and talk to her about the Syrian civil war or the effects of quantitative easing on the U.S. stock market.

After all, she could be on a break. And furthermore, she might not even be a she.

The justices heard the case on an appeal from Terance Emmanuel Chatman, a man who was dressed as a woman in an area known for prostitution. An officer asked Chatman what he was doing, and Chatman said he was “waiting for a ride.”

The officer arrested him for “loitering with an intent to commit prostitution.”

Now, with the justices’ opinion, transvestites will be able to stand on the street and wait for their rides in West Palm Beach with peace of mind. And prostitutes may wave their arms more with reckless abandon.

As for you?

Well, if somebody doing an awful lot of sauntering beckons you to pull to the curb, you can choose to take solace in this court ruling, while applauding yourself for not jumping to conclusions.

But if after you pull over, she asks you for a “date,” and you remind yourself that she might just be seeking a missing ingredient for a fruit smoothie?

Your problem has nothing to do with etiquette.