It’s the law, at least in Alabama. And the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld it.
In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Alabama statute banning the commercial distribution of sex toys, saying that there is no fundamental right to privacy raised by the plaintiff’s case against the law.
According to the statute, it is “unlawful for any person to knowingly distribute any obscene material or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.”
While Lawrence v. Texas had the Supreme Court establishing a right to privacy in the bedroom concerning Texas anti-sodomy laws, Alabama argued successfully that this statute was not about private sexual activity, but about commercial activity that the state had every right to forbid.
But according to Lee, the U.S. Supreme Court in Griswold made clear that the right to use contraception — the issue in that case — didn’t mean anything without the right to buy it. “It seems to many of us that right to use a mechanical device such as a sex toy is already encompassed in the Griswold and Lawrence decisions,” Lee said.
[…] Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana courts have all said that laws banning the sale of sex toys on obscenity grounds are unconstitutional.
Courts in Georgia, Mississippi and Texas have upheld sex toy bans
An appeal to the Supreme Court is likely.
(via BoingBoing)