"There is a public health and safety issue with cigarettes, firecrackers, or drugs," argues Douglas Allen attorney for a woman convicted under a seldom-enforced Louisiana law banning the sale of sex toys to adults. "I've never heard of anyone being injured with a vibrator."
The woman is Christine Brenan, operator of The Dance Box and Naughty But Nice, who was convicted in a jury trial of promoting obscene devices, given a two-year suspended sentence, five years probation, and a $1,500 fine. And while the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the law (last July), Louisiana Attorney General Richard Ieyoub and St. Tammany Parish prosecutors have asked the state Supreme Court to reinstate it.
The law was passed fourteen years ago and bans sale or distribution of artificial devices resembling genitalia or designed and marketed for sexual stimulation.
Arguing before the state high court Tuesday, assistant parish district attorney Dorothy Pendergast called the ban an instance where lawmakers took a moral stance to protect children and certain adults from obscene material, says the Baton Rouge Advocate.
But Allen argued those who buy them use them either with their partners or alone. "I don't know how the state Legislature thinks it can regulate people having sex alone," he argued.
