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Supreme Court Likely to Uphold Alabama Sex Toy Ban

Justices unlikely to make a rights issues out of sex toys

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 16, 2009 6:58 AM CDT
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(Newser) – An Alabama statute criminalizing the sale of sex toys will probably be upheld as constitutional if it is challenged in the Supreme Court, Eugene Volokh writes at the Volokh Conspiracy. The statute—which was upheld by the state's Supreme Court Friday and bans the distribution of  "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs"—will garner at least a 6-3 vote, Volokh predicts, since even liberal justices will want to save their power to recognize unenumerated rights for issues more important than sex toys.

The justices' reluctance to declare that every American has a right to sex toys means Alabama's unsupported arguments about the practical efforts of the ban will probably be accepted, the law professor writes. None of the justices seem to accept "the libertarian constitutionalist notion that a broadranging liberty to do what one pleases so long as it doesn't directly enough hurt others is itself so important that it should be recognized as a constitutional right," Volokh notes.

Alabama's Supreme Court recently upheld a ban on the sale of sex toys and the issues is expected to reach the US Supreme Court.
Alabama's Supreme Court recently upheld a ban on the sale of sex toys and the issues is expected to reach the US Supreme Court.   (©Daquella manera)
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There is nothing 'private' or 'consensual' about the advertising and sale of a dildo. - Majority opinion from
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 23 comments
hott2trott
Jul 12, 2010 1:55 PM CDT
Don't worry about it! Just go to www.hott2trottsexshop.com and get everything you need! The best selections and the lowest prices!! They have discreet billing and shipping!!!! Check it out!
Face-Of-RNC
Sep 16, 2009 10:41 PM CDT
The industry sort of brought this on itself by opening adult superstores right on top of busy highways, and erecting giant signs to entice customers. If they had held a lower profile no one would have gone after them. I'm not even religious but I am embarrassed to drive by those places with my kids in the car. I bet the law had to be written against all toys to prevent those gaudy storefronts.
myvoice
Sep 16, 2009 7:47 AM CDT
good one gabo...these people dont even see their own hypocrisy.. "we can have guns but our wives can never have orgasms!!" What bunch of a-holes ! This is why i live in NYC where we can have the freakiest sex we want!!! :)

 
Alabama • US Constitution • sex toys • libertarianism • Eugene Volokh

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