Federal 11th Circuit Court Rules Alabama Sex Toy LAW
UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!!
Judge Lynwood Smith rules that Law serves no legitimate state interest
| A federal judge on Monday, March 28, 1999
overturned Alabama's ban on sex toys, saying that the State lacked a rational basis for prohibiting the sale of vibrators and other devices. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith of Huntsville found the state's 1998 law is "overly broad" and in violation of due process rights because it bears no "rational relation to a legitimate state interest". "We succeeded in kicking the government out of our bedrooms," said Sherri Williams, who sells sex toys at her stores in Huntsville and Decatur. She joined with others in a lawsuit challenging the law when it was first passed. Under the statute, selling or distributing "any obscene material, or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs" is a misdemeanor punishable by one year in jail and a $10,000 fine. The state was enjoined from enforcing the law pending the outcome of the lawsuit. The state attorney general's office, which could file an appeal, said the ruling is under review. Sen. Tom Butler, who sponsored the bill, said that he has no plans to introduce new legislation aimed at sex toys. He said that his main purpose in introducing the law was to regulate nude dance clubs. In his 84 page ruling, Smith wrote that "a majority or at least a significant minority of the proscribed devices are not obscene under any established definition of obscenity." He emphasized that people who use the devices would be "denied therapy for, among other things, sexual dysfunction." The plaintiffs had claimed that the ban violated privacy rights by indirectly prohibiting adults from engaging in legal acts in their own bedrooms. The court however did not support that argument. Citing Supreme court precedents, Smith refused to extend the fundamental right of privacy to protect the use of sex toys. An attorney for the plaintiff said that her client would drop the privacy complaint if the state chooses to appeal. |
Original Story
State of Alabama
Outlaws Sex Toys
| The Amercian Civil Liberties Union is working on
behalf of six individual's who are challenging a state law banning the purchase of
sexual stimulation devices. The state law bans the sale of sex toys such as
vibrators and dildos. The law provides for fines up to $10,000 and one year in prison for the sale, production, or distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." The law was passed by the Alabama legislature in April 1998 and went into effect on July 1, 1998. Madison County Senator Tom Butler was the principle sponsor of the bill. The American Civil Liberties Union's complaint states that neither masturbation or genital stimulation are a crime in Alabama. They further argue that sex theraists and physicians often recommend these divices for use by their patients. The ACLU has asked the Federal courts to enjoin the state of Alabama from enforcing this law do the the severe legal penalties to which many Alabamians will be subjected. "If a doctor recommends the use of a vibrator or sex aid to assist an individual or a couple in improving their sex lives, I don't see where the government has an interest in preventing them from following that advice," said Olivia Turner, Executive Director of the ACLU of Alabama. Even the Food and Drug Administration has said such devices are medically necessary, she added. In a declaration supporting the ACLU's claims, psychologist Dr. Alfred Jack Turner of Huntsville said he often recommends the use of "sexual/marital aids such as vibrators" to assist his patients in "overcoming sexual dysfunction and other problems." Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington at Seattle and a renowned expert on sexual intimacy issues, also submitted a declaration in the case. "Research and clinical evidence shows that many women who had given up hope of having an orgasm were able to become orgasmic once a vibrator was recommended," she said. "They are now able to enjoy fuller, more enriched sex lives." In its complaint, the ACLU notes that Alabama law does not prohibit the sale of books such as Sex for One and The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex at the local Barnes & Noble, and that vibrators marketed as "body massagers" can be purchased in Wal-Mart stores and at the local mall. "This case is about government imposing its version of morality on private citizens," said Mark J. Lopez, a staff attorney for the ACLU National Office who is lead counsel in the case. Lopez said that two of the women represented in the case, Sherri Williams and B.J. Bailey, could be subject to arrest and fines because they run businesses that could be shut down under the law. Williams owns two retail stores in Huntsville and Decatur, both called "Pleasures," that sell sexual aids and novelties. Bailey, an Alabama resident, conducts "Tupperware"-style parties in private homes, where she sells her company's "Saucy Lady" products, many of which would be illegal under the law. Bailey estimates that tens of thousands of women in northern Alabama have attended her gatherings. Both Williams and Bailey have joined the case on behalf of their customers. "By prohibiting the sale and distribution of sexual devices, Alabama has unduly burdened the rights of plaintiffs to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusions into their private practices," the ACLU's complaint asserts. Such action violates the fundamental rights of privacy and personal autonomy guaranteed by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. The case is Sherri Williams, B.J. Bailey et al. v. Bill Pryor and Tim Morgan, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Attorneys in the case are Mark J. Lopez of the National ACLU, and Amy L. Herring of Harris & Herring and Michael L. Fees of Watson, Fees & Jimmerson, both of Huntsville and acting as ACLU of Alabama cooperating attorneys. Act 98-467, SB607, amends Sections 13A-12-200.1, 13A-12-200.2, 13A-12-200.3, and 13A-12-200.5, Code of Alabama 1975, relating to obscene nuisances. The act provides a civil remedy for the abatement of obscene nuisances, defines adult bookstore, adult video store, adult movie house, and adult-only entertainment, and creates the crime of unlawful distribution or possession with the intent to distribute any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs. The act prohibits the operation of adult enterprises within 1,000 feet of areas frequented by minors and prohibits the employment of minors in establishments that sell or display material that depicts nudity or sexual acts. The act creates the crime of procurement of or preparation of an advertisement for obscene materials, prohibits the showing of the human genitals, pubic area, or buttocks in any business establishment for entertainment purposes, and requires the special licensing of establishments that operate adult-only businesses. The act requires 1/2 of certain fines collected for violations to be paid to the general fund of the county where a violator is imprisoned for use in the operation of the county jail. The act also adds Sections 13A-12-200.11 and 13A-12-200.12 to the Code of Alabama 1975.
UPDATE A Federal Judge in Huntville, Alabama began hearing arguments in this case on Wednesday, February 10, 1999. The plaintiffs in the case argue that the law is an indirect invation of privacy in that it bans the use of products that induce orgasms and that neither masturbation or having an orgasm is against the law in Alabama. The state is arguing that there is no fundamental right to own a product that induces an orgasm. The ban was inserted in a law to prohibit nude dancing in night clubs. Selling or distributing "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs" was made punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10, 000.00 fine. Similar bans in Texas and Georgia have been upheld by the courts. Results will be posted as soon as they are available.
The relevant portion of the this bill is the following: §13A-12-200.2. http://www.legislature.state.al.us/searchableinstruments/1998%20regular%20session/bills/sb607.htm Updates to this story will be posted as they become available. |
