Adult Retailer to Deliver Supreme Court Petition

Adult retailer Sherri Williams will ascend the steps of the United States Supreme Court building at 1 p.m. this afternoon to deliver to the court clerk a copy of her petition for certiorari, asking the high court to rule on whether the Alabama law prohibiting the sale of vibrators for the purpose of sexual stimulation is constitutional.

"My attorney, Roger Wilcox, was up all night finishing the petition," Williams told AVN.com, "and he'll have the official printed copies ready later this afternoon for filing. What I have here isn't the official petition; we're leaving that to the attorney, because I want everything to go just right with the filing."

Williams had sent out a press release announcing the delivery "event," and was informed that at least the Associated Press would be sending a reporter to cover it. The dramatic walk up the Supreme Court steps, however, was arranged as part of a documentary film that is being produced about her nearly decade-long struggle to overturn Alabama's "obscene device" law.

Williams said she has no prepared statement for the press, but "I'm going to do my damnedest to answer their questions in a way that sounds professional."

According to Williams, Reed Lee, a First Amendment attorney and board member of the Free Speech Coalition, had discussed with her the possibility of the Coalition writing an amicus brief on her behalf, and Lee and Wilcox will be finalizing that offer in the near future, she said.

Williams was just pulling up to the Supreme Court building as she spoke with us, and noted that she would have to cross a line of anti-abortion protestors to enter. She also said she's received a call from the D.C. park police to ask if she was planning to call for any sort of demonstration in support of her petition, but she assured them that it would just be her, some reporters and her film crew.

"Wouldn't it be funny, though, if a bunch of women came out her and used their vibrators to have orgasms on the steps of the Supreme Court building?" she joked.

The Supreme Court is under no obligation to grant Williams' petition, however, nor are they required to make that decision by any particular deadline. However, when they do decide, AVN.com will report the outcome.