Federal Appeals Court Overturns TX Sex-Toy Ban

I didn't know ANY state had this kind of ban. Is there ANYTHING the gov. doesn't feel they have a right to control? Geez.
I hope this thread isn't innappropriate for the site...

FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal appeals court has overturned a statute outlawing sex toy sales in Texas, one of the last states — all in the South — to retain such a ban.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by as many as two years in jail, violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
Companies that own Dreamer's and Le Rouge Boutique, which sell the devices in its Austin stores, and the retail distributor Adam & Eve sued in federal court in Austin in 2004 over the constitutionality of the law. They appealed after a federal judge dismissed the suit and said the Constitution did not protect their right to publicly promote such devices.
In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex couples.
"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the appeals judges wrote. "The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence."
more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330641,00.html

This is so crazy! What next?

Okay, let me get this straight, from what I understand of Texas, (its a stereotype I know) every other person has a gun - but sex toys are out??? I don't get it.

Pardon the cliche but "make love, not war" totally fits here.

Utopia (proud to be Canadian)

Being from Texas, I just had to pipe in on this one. Technically yes they are Illegal, not that we don't have out fair share of "toy" stores though. It's not that it's illegal to have them just illegal to market them as sex toys, they have to be sold as Novelties. Stupid I know. There was even a case a while back where a Pleasure party rep was facing charges for selling toys. :doh:

Amazing what stupid laws they will chose to enforce with all the other crap going on in the world, let alone Galveston.

They are illegal in Alabama too. You can't even get a magazine like Adam and Eve delivered to your home there.

They say the ban is constitutional and saying “the state’s interest in preserving and promoting public morality provides a rational basis for the challenged statute.”

Yet have these allowances:

allowed exceptions — sales of sexual devices ‘for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose.’ :waitasec:

I'm sorry, but all I can picture is some happy woman - or man - sitting in a jail cell being asked "So, what are you in here for?" :behindbar

This is the link to the girl who was in trouble for having the toy party.



http://www.dallasobserver.com/2004-04-08/news/sex-toy-story/

Texas Woman Sells Sex Toys, Fights Obscenity Law

http://www.nbc5.com/news/3306397/detail.html

Woman Fights Arrest For Selling Adult Products

http://www.click2houston.com/news/3251445/detail.html

Public Morality is all fine and good but I am pretty sure most people use their toys in private :crazy:

BhamMama said:

They are illegal in Alabama too. You can't even get a magazine like Adam and Eve delivered to your home there.

They say the ban is constitutional and saying “the state’s interest in preserving and promoting public morality provides a rational basis for the challenged statute.”

Yet have these allowances:

allowed exceptions — sales of sexual devices ‘for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose.’ :waitasec:

Click to expand...

You can't even get a magazine? Unbelievable.