The adult toy sellers trying to dump Alabama’s ban on selling adult toys aimed at genital stimulation plan to challenge a three-judge appellate panel ruling that upheld the state law, taking the case to the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 2-1 panel decision overturned a lower court ruling and said the state has a legal right to regulate sex toy sales, on and offline, deciding the Constitution does not guarantee a right to sexual privacy.
“If the people of Alabama in time decide that a prohibition on sex toys is misguided, or ineffective, or just plain silly, they can repeal the law and be finished with the matter,” wrote Circuit Judge Stanley Birch for the majority. “On the other hand, if we today craft a new fundamental right by which to invalidate the law, we would be bound to give that right full force and effect in all future cases – including, for example, those involving adult incest, prostitution, obscenity, and the like.
The dissenting judge, Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett, said the majority finding was demeaning and overlooked constitutional protections for Americans “to be left alone in the privacy of their bedrooms.” Barkett cited the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Texas’s sodomy law in her dissent, saying Lawrence v. Texas “affirm(s) the right of consenting adults to make private sexual decisions. Moreover, this could not have been a new right.”
The attorney for adult store owner Sherri Williams, Mike Frees, told reporters the U.S. Supreme Court could be asked to review the case based on how the full 11th Circuit Court rules. Williams and nine other adult toy business owners – some with stores, some with Website sales, some whose businesses involve Tupperware-style home parties – sued to dump the Alabama law.
