Supreme Court Rejects Appeal on Ban on Sex Toy Sale

[truthpusher]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&u=/nm/20050222/us_nm/court_sextoys_dc&printer=1

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal on Ban on Sex Toy Sale

36 minutes ago

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) rejected on Tuesday a constitutional challenge to an Alabama law that makes it a crime to sell sex toys.

The high court refused to hear an appeal by a group of individuals who regularly use sexual devices and by two vendors who argued the case raised important issues about the scope of the constitutional right to sexual privacy.

The law prohibited the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." First-time violators can face a fine of up to $10,000 and as much as one year in jail.

The law, adopted in 1998, allowed the sale of ordinary vibrators and body massagers that are not designed or marketed primarily as sexual aids. It exempted sales of sexual devices "for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose."

Georgia and Texas are the only other states that restrict the distribution of sexual devices, according to the court record in the case.


complete story:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&u=/nm/20050222/us_nm/court_sextoys_dc&printer=1

[Worst Username Ever]

1. Texas, Georgia, and Alabama, incidentally

are the states that really seem to need a good lay.

[bushisanidiot]

3. Coincidence that TX, GA & AL are lowest on the Education totem pole?

uh. no.

[truthpusher]

28. In context why did you have to use the term 'pole'. n/t

[murray hill farm]

2. What would be a...

bona fide judicial or law enforcement use of a sexual aid?

[enki23]

4. a republican judge with a penis pump

.

[truthpusher]

29. The first thing I thought of...

...these judges want all the toys to themselves.

[BR_Parkway]

5. I thought the same thing about legislative n/t

[daleo]

44. Perhaps a torture device.

As used for sexual torture and humilation in Abu Graib.

[Fridays Child]

6. Only human genital stimulators are prohibited?

I guess monkey dildoes are okay.

[Rose Siding]

7. One more dry state.

Did I say that out loud?

[VegasWolf]

14. Damn, Rose, wicked humor! Time for a

:spank:

[truthpusher]

30. Wow n/t

[still_one]

8. how in the hell would they know?

[sarcasmo]

9. To bad Reilly wasn't in Alabama doesn't he enjoy Vibrators.

[Megahurtz]

10. Talk about the Government peering into your bedroom,

I would like to hear their reason why they actually think this should be against the law. What is their wonky reasoning behind this?:freak:

[iam]

11. Conservatism doesn't need reasoning

It only needs hate, fear, greed or ignorance.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Yes. What Public Interest Is Served By This Law?

Answer: None. They could ban selling them in stores. But, why not mail order or something. If nobody is the wiser apropos the purchase, who is affected? There is no public interest.
The Professor

[plcdude]

12. so where does it go

from here or is it the end?

[mongo]

25. Well....

From here what would have to happen is the law being challenged in another circuit and being overturned, so that you have two differing opinions in two different jurisdictions.

Then MAYBE, the Supremes would hear the case.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

13. But attaching electrodes to genitals is OK

if you need certain information

[VegasWolf]

15. LBN: Alabama State Police, Mam, were are here to search your

house. We have belief that you may have a vibrator on the
premises. In fact, more than one vibrator. As you know,
Alabama Law #whutfuk says that you cannot pleasure yourself
by sticking vibrating things into your body orifices. Now
what do you have to say for yourself, you pervert!

[Southern Dem 2005]

16. Its only illegal to sell, not own!

[VegasWolf]

18. "illegal to sell", ONLY. but you can still buy all the cigs you want.n/t

[Sivafae]

17. whaaa???? n/t

[mainer]

19. Vagina Monologues mentions this about Texas

One of the lines is about how in Texas it's legal to buy a gun and drive around with it in your car, but it's illegal to buy a vibrator. Then the play asks the question: "How many people have been murdered with a vibrator?"

[AnneD]

40. In French...

doesn't the word for orgasim mean little death (le petit morte?). So yes, vibrators can cause death, so to speak.

[primavera]

20. If vibrators are outlawed...

...only outlaws will have vibrators. Remember, vibrators don't pleasure people, people pleasure people.

[VegasWolf]

21. What about vibrators with those little finger thingys all over them? They

could be for therapeutic purposes.

[VegasWolf]

22. If you can't LUV yourself, who else will LUV you?n/t

[Megahurtz]

23. Lol!

:D

[mongo]

24. This is totally devistating

I can't belive they wouldn't hear the case. They would have had to overturn the law in light of Lawerence.

BTW, it isn't JUST Ala, Georgia and Texas. Kansas specifically mentions devices in its obscenity laws, and most states (like OH), have laws so vauge that a realistic looking vibe or dildo would qualify as obscene.

I hope some of you DU'ers write me when I'm in prison for selling a movie or a vibe.

How the hell can the Supreme Court say that you have a right to privacy in your sexual encounters, but that I do not have the right to sell you a dildo?

[solinvictus]

26. Yes...

In Alabama, where schools and universities struggle to stay open, where we have poverty in rural areas that rivals any Third World nation; our legislators are concerned that somewhere in the state a commercial exchange may occur in which someone buys a device used for sexual pleasure. Well, like the editorials said last November, I may be unemployed with a home in foreclosure, but at least gay people I don't know won't be allowed to marry.

[truthisfreedom]

27. whew, i'm relieved that they are allowing those law-enforcement vibrators.

where would we be without them?

[Shallah Kali]

32. Is viagra illegal there?

Or are only drug companies allowed to profit from sales of sexual aids?

[DiverDave]

33. YO! Fundy's!

Over Here!

Keep your goddamned sick brains away from my package...what are you?
a pervert?...never mind.

Payback is gonna be a bitch...Just keep going further and further.

[snippy]

34. More of the republican nanny state. n/t

[depakid]

35. This simply confirms what more astute observers thought

Lawrence vs. Texas was an anomalous case that meant little or nothing in terms of Constitutional law. Despite considerable dicta in the case, the bottom line was that the court used the rational relationship test, as they would for any other statute that did not infringe on a protected interest.

In other words- gay (or presumably straight) people in their own bedroom have no more potection than a business does against some arbitrary law designed merely to hinder its operations. None whatsoever, Constitutionally.

The reasoning in Lawrence was that the legislature had no legitimate state interest on those facts in criminalizing intimate behavior. The "moral justification" was not deemed sufficient- in that case. However, as anyone who has studied con law knows, under the rational relationship test, the state almost always wins, whereas if a fundamental right is at issue, the state often loses.

The fact that the court used the rational relationship test was much more telling than the fact that they ruled in favor of petitioners Lawrence and Garner.

And here we see the progeny of Lawrence- and I for one am not the least bit surprised. I tried to tell people this when the case was decided, but most- unwilling to learn or think critically, scoffed at the notion- preferring their own political vagueries to legal and conceptual analysis.

[HockeyMom]

36. No BABIES

Can't make BABIES with a Vibrator. That is the PURPOSE of sex. ROFL

[applegrove]

37. Make sure walmart can sell you the automatic potato peeler, but ... n/t

[retread]

38. Call me naive, but what the hell is a sexual device for legislative,

judicial or law enforcement purpose????

[AnneD]

39. Talk about discrimination against Texas (and Ga, /Ala) women ......

We sent all our dicks to Washington D.C........

[Maine-ah]

41. what the hell is law enforcement going to us 'em for?

:spank:

[retread]

42. Or for what legislative and judicial purpose??

*

[applegrove]

43. Ahhhhhh ..... Ahem. Errrr. Guns people - try stopping the guns first!

[geniph]

45. Orgasms are VERBOTEN in Alabama!

No orgasm without conception! Bad people, to try to have fun without conceiving happy little fetuses!

No wonder the rest of the industrialized nations of the world think we're cuckoo about sex. What freakazoid neo-Puritan buckethead would even BEGIN to think about introducing a bill to ban the sale of sexual aids? Is the world suffering from some imminent danger from the existence of Weapons of Mass G-Spot Stimulation that I don't know about?

[Ilsa]

46. Is it illegal to GIVE them away?

Perhaps people in those states could have a club to belong to and pay dues to. And for being a member of the club, you get a sex toy of your choosing.

[Ilsa]

47. Is it possible they were too embarassed to take this one on?

Have they draped any statues in the Supreme Court building, or is that just in the Justice Dept?