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Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain

The Supreme Court has refused to overturn a lower court ruling upholding Alabama's ban on sex toys. There is no right to consumer privacy in sexually stimulating devices.

A divided three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. It said in a ruling last July that siding with the sex toy merchants could open the door to the legalization of undesirable sexual behavior such as prostitution. "If the people of Alabama in time decide that prohibition on sex toys is misguided, or ineffective, or just plain silly, they can repeal the law and be finished with the matter," the court said.

"On the other hand, if we today craft a new fundamental right by which to invalidate the law, we would be bound to give that right full force and effect in all future cases including, for example, those involving adult incest, prostitution, obscenity, and the like."

Doesn't this hurt Alabama businesses who sell the goods? Since it is lawful to possess them, just not to sell them, Alabamans will have to purchase them outside the state.

A related story here.

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    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#1)
    by Adept Havelock on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:04:25 AM EST
    And the right wing continues it's process of getting government out of the Boardroom, and back into the bedroom.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#2)
    by Sailor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:16:00 AM EST
    "Sex toys" are in the ...uh... eye of the beholder. Will they outlaw selling whipped cream or ice cubes or handcuffs? How about zucchini or falafels? Or those cell phones that vibrate? Someone should market an 8" high ten commandments monolith with ovoid tablets at the base, or perhaps just a scale model of Perry's Monument What a bunch of maroons. Once again Alabamians are getting the shaft, just not in their local store;-)

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:24:29 AM EST
    Most are built in china, but its funny to read this, sex toys are for fools who need help, but anyone should be able to buy the little toys. what a non nation, of totally insane people.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:37:44 AM EST
    et al - As a buddy of mine said... Too bad that wasn't a law before I married my third wife. We both would have been happier. ;-)

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:41:19 AM EST
    Thank God for the internets! Hey, they are trying to ban purchasing cigars over the internets so maybe sex toys will be next.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:45:45 AM EST
    Gotta love Alabama laws. First Jim Crow now this... and this.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:47:04 AM EST
    Now Alabama, that's the state that always comes in dead last in state school and public health rankings (or tied with Mississippi)? Tinker-toy infrastructure and state budget that doesn't allow for things like, say, pavement? Voted down a tax increase last year because they're all such huge fans of "small government"? But what few resources they have, they're using to regulate self-abuse. Right. I've never been to Alabama. I hear it's pretty . . . from all the ex-Alabamans who high-tailed it out of there as soon as they could buy a bus ticket.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:49:47 AM EST
    This is hilarious... you would think things like this shouldn't even take up valuble 'supreme court' time? Alabama (as well as some other Southern states) has always gotten a rap for being a little behind the times.. C'mon people, this is the 21st century after all...get with the program. What you do in your bedroom is your business...period! How about flavored condoms? Couldn't (wouldn't) they be considered a toy of sorts? Where does it end?

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#9)
    by desertswine on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:55:10 AM EST
    Say, that picture of Perry's Monument made me feel a little uneasy and slightly nauseous.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#10)
    by Jlvngstn on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 10:55:47 AM EST
    Being that prostiution is the "oldest" profession, I would think that simply "breathing" is a cause. I like the idea of a "Ten Commando" dildo. 10. Thou shalt ease this in. 9. Thou shalt cleanse this after each use. 8. Thou shalt not use it on your neighbors wife, unless of course you have permission. 7. Thou shalt not worship any other toys before it. 6. Thou shalt not covet thy toys size. 5. Thou shalt not kill (keep batteries charged) 4. Thou shalt not use this toy in vain (only use in missionary position) 3. Thou shalt not use on a man without his knowledge (wedgies are fun, surprise pluggings are scary) 2. Thou shalt not steal (we will notice a 10" growth in your pants as you are leaving the store) 1. Thou shalt not use this to replace your endowically challenged, race to the finish asleep after ten minute husband.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:04:16 AM EST
    I remember when they were called personal health devices. Could Doctors dispense them in clinics with medical marijuana? Could they be sold as theatrical props? How about putting them in frames and selling them as art? I sure where there is an urge there is a way.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#12)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:12:03 AM EST
    What a stupid legal arguement: We have to stop the sale because the people in general are too stupid to maintain control of their own lives. I don't know, maybe that's desirable in Alabama.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#13)
    by Sailor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:19:42 AM EST
    desertswine - you should have seen the monument before they trimmed the bush ... I mean bushes;-) I wonder when they will start banning Steely Dan CDs in 'bama;-) Jlvngstn - Prostitution is not the oldest, farming is. How else do you get the goods to barter with?

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#14)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:20:25 AM EST
    We have to stop the sale because the people in general are too stupid to maintain control of their own lives. Don't be silly. The point of this law isn't to help people maintain control of their own lives.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:23:48 AM EST
    "I sure where there is an urge there is a way."
    think smuggling / blackmarketing sex toys!!! prohibition of personal lifestyle choices is a very bad idea. oh, but we already know that.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#16)
    by jen on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:26:28 AM EST
    Hey Sailor -- why do you think hunting was so popular?

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:41:47 AM EST
    I know the real reason for the law. Now they have probable cause to stop and search all the young black men in Alabama! The south will rise again!

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 11:43:30 AM EST
    Vibrating Tupperware parties spring up all over Alabama.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#19)
    by Sailor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:22:45 PM EST
    Jen - "Hey Sailor -- why do you think hunting was so popular?" Actually when we could hunt 'em we didn't have to pay for it;-) Good thing it wasn't Kentucky; KY is often a needed accessory.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#20)
    by libdevil on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:25:59 PM EST
    So what's to stop them from banning any other consumer product? Could they, if they wanted to, ban baseball caps, masking tape, and ball peen hammers? I don't get the difference. If they could ban any of those things, then the failure to ban them also opens the door to incest and prostitution. Either there's some nuance I'm missing here, or these people have gone way off the deep end. Given that it's the deep South, and the subject is sex, I suspect the latter.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:30:57 PM EST
    …siding with the sex toy merchants could open the door to the legalization of undesirable sexual behavior such as prostitution… Are these judges insane? I would think JUST the opposite. No sex toy for private use, then a desire for prostitution, which is also an equally idiotic assumption… because I don’t see cause and effect. Do judges deal in facts? I just can’t see a cause and effect between sex toys and illicit sexual behavior, incest, etc. Sexual violence (incest, rape) is violence… not sex. Most predators abuse and exploit, not because of sex toys, but because they themselves were abused as kids and pass along the legacy of abuse. However, (and I have no stats to support this claim) I don’t think users of dildos are the folks using the services of prostitutes. I mean how many men (primary users of prostitutes) buy dildos to pleasure themselves? Or their wives (touchy male egos)? OK, maybe Jeff Gannon and his types are exceptions but I’m still fine with that even if it were so. This seems like another lame attempt to control Alabama private lives and I am darn sick of the Morality Police sneaking into our bedrooms. I live in Georgia and we have the sex toy ban here though it’s not enforced strictly. A few “gift shops” in Atlanta have toys in the backroom but I suspect they get away with it by paying off cops. Oh, well. Alabama isn’t top of the list on civil liberties, IMO. BTW, Jlvngstn, the Ten Commandos are a riot! LOL.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:33:06 PM EST
    What next: How about guns...Naawwwwww How about Democrats ... Yeehawwww

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#23)
    by desertswine on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 12:53:33 PM EST
    Jlvngstn - I loved your ten commandments!

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#24)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 02:25:28 PM EST
    I worry about sexually transmitted diseases taking off in Alabama. While sex toys cannot be sold in the state, they can still be leased. Yuck!

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 02:38:14 PM EST
    I am a big time conservative, and even I think that these anti sex toy laws are the most intrusive, unconstitutional laws passed in recent years. I can't believe the USSC didn't take this issue head on.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 04:38:00 PM EST
    Does this mean the Alabama supreme court was illegally bought? They really are a bunch of dildos.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#27)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 05:24:23 PM EST
    Does this mean Levitra is illegal in AL? This crap is hilarious. Thanks for the KY comment: LMAO! Congratulations, Alabama. You just replaced FL as the nation's laughingstock.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#28)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 07:21:55 PM EST
    Quaker, Exactly.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#29)
    by Johnny on Tue Feb 22, 2005 at 08:29:38 PM EST
    And so a few select vegetables should probably be banned as well, not to mention massaging shower heads, motorcycles with poor cam timing (ask my wife), horses, and whole slew of other things. This is insane-linking self pleasure with prostitution. All this is going to do is create a whle new class of criminal-my wife among them (if we lived in Alabama that is). My wife is no criminal. With all the crap going on in the world, with all the trouble we have keeping children fed and educated, out highest courts are worried about dildos? This is even more ludicrous than spending millions busting Tommy Chong for selling completely legal herbal pipes on the internet. Speaking of which, I have used beer cans and pop cans as a smoking device... better arrest Pepsico! I just can't get over how worried the cons are about who is diddling who with what... And the oceans are warming and cancer is skyrocketing and the dollar is failing and we are not winning the war on terror... Wonderful Think I will move to Alabama so my wife and I can be good sexual criminals. If you are busted buying a dildo, will you have to register with the state as a sex crime offender?

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#31)
    by kdog on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 07:42:50 AM EST
    Could they, if they wanted to, ban baseball caps, masking tape, and ball peen hammers?
    Exactly my argument when water pipes (aka bongs) are banned. When does it end? Once you let big brother in your private life, he never leaves. Prepare for mandatory membership in the Anti-Sex League.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#32)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 08:29:51 AM EST
    Welcome to the state of Alabama. Goe play with youreslf somewhere else.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#33)
    by kdog on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 09:38:35 AM EST
    Just to be "safe", I would recommend forced amputation of fingers. The risk is just too great of someone, somewhere (god forbid!) giving themselves pleasure. The State of Alabama should be commended in their fight to rid human beings of their natural instincts.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#34)
    by Jlvngstn on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 11:03:42 AM EST
    Better do it for toes also, there are a lot of folks out there with foot fetishes that I am certain are driven to madness by Open Toed shoes.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#35)
    by kdog on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 11:39:25 AM EST
    Good point J....Maybe the best solution to ridding the world of sex is mandatory, full body, stainless steel chastity armor. Forced castration of the sex organs can be considered abortion, which can't be allowed either, so the full body lockdown seems the best, most god-fearing option. In all seriousness, if loving yourself is wrong, I don't wanna be right! Does the state gov't of Alabama prefer casual sex to masterbation?

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#36)
    by Jlvngstn on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 12:06:47 PM EST
    Well the Taliban had the burka (sp) perhaps it might not be a bad idea for Alabamans, you know to protect their citizens from the madness caused by exposed midriffs, painted toenails, pierced belly buttons and of course thigh high boots which have been known to make some men crazy.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#37)
    by pigwiggle on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 12:21:09 PM EST
    free minds and free markets

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#38)
    by kdog on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 01:49:06 PM EST
    And free self-love. One of the greatest gifts of life is the orgasm. Why does the mere thought of a stranger enjoying one freak these people out so? I'll never get their way of thinking.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#39)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 03:10:16 PM EST
    no trolling readily identified, so i guess we can surmise all here are in agreement with kdog:
    One of the greatest gifts of life is the orgasm.
    humbly; a gift i like to enjoy over, and over, and over, and ...

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#40)
    by Johnny on Wed Feb 23, 2005 at 06:13:59 PM EST
    kdog-eloquently put.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#30)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 07:51:11 AM EST
    No high-heeled shoes; no thigh-high lace top stockings. No push-up bras. Let's make this equal-opportunity denial.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#42)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 10:41:08 AM EST
    but officer it's just a "neck massager," honest.

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#43)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 10:08:51 PM EST
    hate to tell you all but i live in alabama and this is only the tip of the iceberg for there stupidity i cant wait to turn 18 and get the hell away and we didnt want it the goverment in general owns our lives and our senotors waste our education money on cheap wh**res

    Re: Alabama Sex Toy Ban Will Remain (none / 0) (#44)
    by Jakey B on Mon Oct 01, 2007 at 10:11:28 PM EST
    God, I hate my state...