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Alabama ban on sex toys is struck down as unconstitutional
Associated Press | October 11, 2002

Posted on 10/11/2002 1:29:58 PM PDT by HAL9000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- 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 fundamental right of privacy, long recognized by the Supreme Court as inherent among our constitutional protections, incorporates a right to sexual privacy,'' U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith Jr. said Wednesday.

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.

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: alabama; sextoys
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1 posted on 10/11/2002 1:29:58 PM PDT by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000
The right to bare sex toys shall not be infringed!!!!!!!!
2 posted on 10/11/2002 1:31:08 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: HAL9000
I thought it might be. That was the buzz from D.C., anyhow...
3 posted on 10/11/2002 1:33:26 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Always Right
Bad vibes?
4 posted on 10/11/2002 1:33:39 PM PDT by Callahan
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To: HAL9000
This is a silly law, but this is also judicial activism of the worst kind.
5 posted on 10/11/2002 1:33:46 PM PDT by B Knotts
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To: HAL9000
Does this mean that they are still able to order the Harry Potter vibrating broomstick and the Hello Kitty personal massagers?
6 posted on 10/11/2002 1:35:29 PM PDT by weegee
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To: Billthedrill
Does this mean BJ can pack his inflatable intern when he visits Alabama?
7 posted on 10/11/2002 1:35:30 PM PDT by Callahan
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To: HAL9000
Forgive me, but why was there a move to ban sex toys to begin with????????? If you dont want them, dont buy them. Who cares what the couple across the street are doing in their own bedroom. Sheesh, some people need to get a life.
8 posted on 10/11/2002 1:36:34 PM PDT by FeliciaCat
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To: HAL9000
Good! Obviously, some lawmakers have too much time and not enough toys in their hands....
9 posted on 10/11/2002 1:38:03 PM PDT by AntiGuv
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To: weegee
I've heard about the broomstick, but the Hello Kitty massagers is a new one to me...
10 posted on 10/11/2002 1:40:09 PM PDT by Charlie OK
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To: HAL9000
Dildos For All!

But on a serious note, the court was right to strike this law down.

11 posted on 10/11/2002 1:40:54 PM PDT by Phantom Lord
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To: AntiGuv
That was funny!
12 posted on 10/11/2002 1:41:22 PM PDT by Auntbee
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To: HAL9000
Freedom for large vibrating eggs!
13 posted on 10/11/2002 1:41:37 PM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: FeliciaCat
I agree, it's none of their busines nor mine what you or they do in their own homes. It was a stupid law to begin with.
14 posted on 10/11/2002 1:44:37 PM PDT by HELLRAISER II
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To: FeliciaCat
Who cares


15 posted on 10/11/2002 1:44:52 PM PDT by LowOiL
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To: HAL9000
Woo hoo!
16 posted on 10/11/2002 1:46:58 PM PDT by Junior
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: HAL9000
LOL....second time I'm brought to tears today. You couldn't have had a more appropriate photo.
18 posted on 10/11/2002 1:49:05 PM PDT by amused
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To: HAL9000
Stupid Judicial Activists at work again. Our nation has fallen so far from it's roots. Our nation was built upon morality.

Our Founders never intended our Constitution for the idiots that are around today.

"Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. John Adams

"The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty." John Adams

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

"Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society." John Adams

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. John Quincy Adams

"From the day of the Declaration...they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct." John Quincy Adams

"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being....And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will...this will of his Maker is called the law of nature. These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil...This law of nature dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this... Sir William Blackstone

"Blasphemy against the Almighty is denying his being or providence, or uttering contumelious reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is punished, at common law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity is part of the laws of the land. Sir William Blackstone

"The preservation of Christianity as a national religion is abstracted from its own intrinsic truth, of the utmost consequence to the civil state, which a single instance will sufficiently demonstrate. Sir William Blackstone

"I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man. Alexander Hamilton

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." Patrick Henry

"The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed." Patrick Henry

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom." Patrick Henry

"It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains." Patrick Henry

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. John Jay

"Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man toward God." Gouverneur Morris

"If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him....Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." William Penn

"By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime." Benjamin Rush

If our founders had only known what we have become, they would have drafted a much different constitution.

Way back in 1815, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided an important case, here are excerpts from that case: It reflects the case law of the day, and the attitude on which our nation was founded.)

This court is...invested with power to punish not only open violations of decency and morality, but also whatever secretly tends to undermine the principles of society... Whatever tends to the destruction of morality, in general, may be punishable criminally. Crimes are public offenses, not because they are perpetrated publically, but because their effect is to injure the public. Buglary, though done in secret, is a public offense; and secretly destroying fences is indictable.

Hence it follows, that an offense may be punishable, if in it's nature and by it's example, it tends to the corruption or morals; although it not be committed in public.

Although every immoral act, such as lying, ect... is not indictable, yet where the offense charged is destructive of morality in general...it is punishable at common law. The destruction of morality renders the power of government invalid...

No man is permitted to corrupt the morals of the people, secret poision cannot be thus desseminated.

Remember:

"It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains."

19 posted on 10/11/2002 1:50:35 PM PDT by FF578
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To: Saturnalia
Q: How do you make pickle bread?
A: You have to start with Dill Dough.
20 posted on 10/11/2002 1:50:36 PM PDT by Lower55
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