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Alabama
Ban On Sex
Toys Is Struck
Down
As Unconstitutional
October
14, 2000
An Alabama
law banning the sale of sex toys was struck down by a federal
judge as a violation of the right to privacy.
The statute
deemed selling or distributing "any obscene material or any device
designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of
human genital organs" to be a misdemeanor punishable by up to
one year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
He said the
state did not prove it has a legitimate interest in banning the
sale of sex devices for use in private, consensual relationships
between adults.
The 1998 law
- part of a package of legislation strengthening the state's obscenity
law - banned the sale of devices designed for "the stimulation
of human genital organs." It was challenged by six women who either
sell sex aids or said they need them for sexual gratification.
US District
Judge Lynwood Smith Jr said: "The fundamental right of privacy,
long recognized by the Supreme Court as inherent among our constitutional
protections, incorporates a right to sexual privacy."
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