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 said
the state has a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually stimulating. "If the people of Alabama in time decide that a 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. The American Civil Liberties Union, 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. "...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."
Posted by Editor at July 29, 2004 07:37 PM