BIRMINGHAM "” A group of adult-product merchants and customers trying to overturn Alabama's ban on the sale of sex toys will challenge an appeals court ruling that upheld the 6-year-old law, their lawyer said Thursday.
Plaintiffs will likely ask the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case since a divided three-judge panel issued the decision, said attorney Mike Fees, representing store owner Sherri Williams and nine other people who sued to overturn the law.
Depending on what the full court decides, the Supreme Court could be asked to review the case, he said.
In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, the 11th Circuit overturned a lower court and upheld a state law banning the sale of devices designed to stimulate human genitals. The court ruled the state has a legal right to regulate the sale of sex toys and decided the Constitution doesn't include a right to sexual privacy.
In a sharply worded dissent, Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett called the majority opinion "demeaning" and said it overlooked the constitutionally protected right of Americans "to be left alone in the privacy of their bedrooms."
"The majority opinion calls out for an appeal," said Fees.
Past court rulings barred the state from enforcing the law until courts decided whether it was constitutional. The state attorney general's office had no comment on whether it would advise local police to begin shutting down stores with erotic merchandise because of the 11th Circuit's ruling.
Williams owns adult stores in Huntsville and Decatur, and similar businesses are located in other cities. Also, some companies offer Tupperware-style parties where items like vibrators are sold in private homes, and several Alabama-based Internet sites sell sex toys.
The law does not prohibit the possession of sex devices
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In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, the 11th Circuit overturned a lower court and upheld a state law banning the sale of devices designed to stimulate human genitals.
Three people tried the evidence, but only two came to a conclusion.
Oh, here's a thought........... If people don't want to buy or posess sex toys then don't go into the store.
If they would have left well enough alone and not made sex toy stores illegal then Alabama wouldn't need to be worrying about it. These people were making a living selling a perfectly legal product and then the state yanks it right out from under them. I'd be a little pissed about it also if Iwere one of the business owners.
Man I hate people that try to force their moral beliefs on other people. Peoples sex lives are their private matters and politics has no place regulating what people do or buy for their sexual pleasure.
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State supreme court refused to hear the case - the ruling stands.
I don't have a problem with it really. As it stands you bring your kid into a gas station and you see dildo's crack pipes etc. all over the case.
If somebody wants that very special battery operated gerbil, order it via mail or internet, I don't like seeing this crap displayed for public view.
Recall the case of the guy in Colorado that brought his kid into a public library and some women's group had a huge display of plaster of paris penises to "prevent spousal abuse" ?
He went on a rampage tore them all down and was exonerated in court.
Alabama nothing better to worry about???
