There was plenty of good news yesterday from the Supreme Court -- they're letting a New York court's ruling forcing social service agencies affiliated with a religious group to cover contraception for employees stand, and they also upheld the right of a public library in California to refuse to make their meeting room available for worship services. The bad news: the Supreme Court won't be helping you get sex toys anytime soon, dear Alabama readers.
The court declined to hear a challenge to Alabama's ban on the sale of sex toys, which came to them after 9 years of legal struggle in the state. Sherrie Williams, a vendor of adult wares, has been arguing that the ban is an unconstitutional intrusion on privacy since it was enacted as part of the state's anti-obscenity law in 1998. The ban covers "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs for anything of pecuniary value," except if it has a "bona fide medical" purpose.
At least it's only a ban on selling these articles in the state -- people can still hop the border, buy all the sex toys they desire, and use them to their heart's content. Wait, no. They would be able to, were similar sex toy laws not on the books in both Georgia and Mississippi as well. I guess there's always Tennessee, though legislators there have tried to propose similar legislation.
The temporary injunction keeping police and courts from enforcing the law is expected to be lifted shortly, meaning within the next few days, anyone caught selling unlawful dildos within state lines will face up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine for a first offense, and a sentence of up to 10 years for a second offense.
Williams says she's going to sue again, this time on First Amendment grounds: "My motto has been they are going to have to pry this vibrator from my cold, dead hand."
--Kate Sheppard
