U.S. Fed Appeals Court Rules that Constitution Doesn't Include Right to Sexual Privacy, OKs Alabama Ban on Sale of Sex Toys

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In other shocking news, we Americans still have MASSIVE problems with sexuality.

Federal Court OKs Ban on Sale of Sex Toys
Thu Jul 29, 3:21 AM ET
By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a 1998 Alabama law banning the sale of sex toys in the state, ruling the Constitution doesn't include a right to sexual privacy.
In a 2-1 decision overturning a lower court, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) said the state has a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually stimulating.
The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), which represented merchants and users who sued to overturn the law, asked the appeals court to rule that the Constitution included a right to sexual privacy that the ban on sex toy sales would violate. The court declined, indicating such a decision could lead down other paths.
[...]
Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett disagreed [with the ruling], saying the decision was based on the "erroneous foundation" that adults don't have a right to consensual sexual intimacy and that private acts can be made a crime in the name of promoting "public morality."

Note: while sales of overtly sexual devices have been prohibited, there are no shortage of the Fall 2004 line of asshats available to authority figures.

― Kingfish von Bandersnatch (Kingfish), Thursday, 29 July 2004 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Guns good, buttplugs bad?

― Huck, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

also, you'll notice that no position has been taken in respect to Love Guns

― Kingfish von Bandersnatch (Kingfish), Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

What if I decorate my cockring with little confederate flags?

― Huck, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

will they light up & flash?

― Kingfish von Bandersnatch (Kingfish), Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

This is the kind of news story that makes me very prone to violence. And it also makes me want to distribute vibrators on the streets of Alafuckingbama.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but "she" will.

xpost

― Huck, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Jeanne OTFM.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Je4nne raises an interesting point, okay, you can't sell 'em, but can you give 'em away?

And what about "personal massage devices" sold in dept. stores that y'know, on the box act like they're not really vibrators, but, y'know, they totally are?

― Huck, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I was going to ask if Je4nne would be charging for the handouts.

There's a vibrator dispensing machine in the toilets of a bar that a well-known London twee indie night is held at.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

In case the ladies get lucky.
(because twee indie guys aren't so hot in the sack)

― Huck, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't understand how this ruling jibes with the Supremes' striking down the anti-sodomy law. I expect if it goes that far (and it probably will), the Supremes will uphold the lower court ruling and overturn the appeals court one. Then again, the SCOTUS is somewhat unpredictable.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

My scotus is unpredictable too. Like sometimes, even when it's really cold out, it just, uh, wait a minute...

― Huck, Thursday, 29 July 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd distribute the vibes for free. Oh, and I just wrote T0ys in B4beland and told them they need to take out a full-page ad in every Alabama newspaper. No law against mail order, damnit.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Thursday, 29 July 2004 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Besides the decision itself being nauseating, this kind of news also pisses me off because it's another case of Alabama fucking up everyone else's perception of the southern states as a bunch of assbackwards morons. I mean there have already been Confederate flag jokes on this thread.

Bah. I get so fucking sick of people who have never been to the South telling me shit about my hometown or surrounding areas. The last thing I need is pretty legitimate grist for their mills.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 29 July 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

For what it's worth, Martin, us Europeans think this makes the whole country look ridiculous, not just the southern states.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 29 July 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

Thought of a 1L taking Con Law: Is it possible that it would be better to let states like Alabama pass as many fucktarded laws like this as they want so that all but the most fucktarded people will move out of the state, depriving it of any intellectual and economic base?

― Bonobos in Paneradise (Hurting 2), Friday, 20 March 2009 03:35 (seventeen years ago)

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