Sex toys legalized in Texas

[Tiassa]

Source: Statesman.com
Link: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/14/0214sextoys.html
Title: "Court overturns Texas ban on sex toys", by Steven Kreytak
Date: February 14, 2008

Even the lonely have something to celebrate this Valentine's Day. A federal court has struck down a Texas law that ... well ....

A federal appeals court has struck down a Texas law that makes it a crime to promote or sell sex toys.

"Whatever one might think or believe about the use of these devices," said an opinion written by Justice Thomas M. Reavley of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, "government interference with their personal and private use violates the Constitution."

Under Texas law it is illegal to sell, advertise, give or lend obscene devices, defined as a device used primarily for sexual stimulation. Anyone in possession of six or more sexual devices is considered to be promoting them.

The Texas law dates back to the 1970s and is seldom enforced. Travis County prosecutors say that they haven't charged anyone with a sexual device-related crime in at least the past seven years, and probably much longer.

In 2003, a woman in the Fort Worth suburb of Burleson drew nationwide attention when she was arrested for selling erotic toys at a Tupperware-type party. The charges against Joanne Webb were later dropped.

In addition to Texas, whose law has survived previous state court challenges, three other states have a similar sex toys statute: Mississippi, Alabama and Virginia. Laws in Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia have been thrown out by courts in recent years.

The 2-1 opinion by a panel of the 5th Circuit was based heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, which struck down a Texas law prohibiting private consensual sex among people of the same sex.

(Kreytak)

It is perhaps a testament to the Lone Star Republic that this was an appeals court.

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Lawrence case, a company operating adult-oriented stores in Texas filed suit against the sex-toy statute. While neither Reliable Consultants, Inc., or its eventual partner in the suit, PHE, Inc., which operates the Adam and Eve online and mail-order enterprise, had been prosecuted under the law, they claimed their business was hindered and their customers deprived. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that there is no specific constitutional right to publicly promote obscene devices.

On appeal, lawyers for the State of Texas, which had replaced Abbott as a defendant, argued that the Lawrence case invalidates laws that target private conduct but not laws prohibiting any commercial conduct. Justice Rhesa H. Barksdale agreed with that logic in his dissent.

The state also argued in a brief that Texas has legitimate "morality based" reasons for the laws, which include "discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation."

(ibid)

That's right, the state of Texas argued that it has a legitimate interest in preventing you from masturbating.

And if the state insists, it can take the case back to the Fifth and ask that the entire court hear the case, or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I almost want to see the latter, just so I can read Scalia, or maybe Alito or Roberts, actually make the point that they think a state should have the right to govern whether or how an individual is allowed to masturbate.

 

[cosmictraveler]

If that court wouldn't have struck down that law then people would have had to revert back to cucumbers, carrots and other various things once again....oh the thought of it all.

 

[Orleander]

If that court wouldn't have struck down that law then people would have had to revert back to cucumbers, carrots and other various things once again....oh the thought of it all.

Seriously?? veggies??? I'll never look at a Veggie Tales movie the same way again.


I wonder how long til the other 3 states have their laws challenged.

 

[cosmictraveler]

Seriously?? veggies??? I'll never look at a Veggie Tales movie the same way again.


I wonder how long til the other 3 states have their laws challenged.

When the judges have to revert to fruits and vegetables once again!

 

[Tiassa]

I wonder how long til the other 3 states have their laws challenged.

If Texas gambles on the Supreme Court and loses, it won't matter. In the meantime, though, those laws are essentially castrated.

 

[lucifers angel]

so, in those states, vibrators, cock rings, were illegal? weird?

 

[Tiassa]

Yeah, a bit weird. These are what, in 2004, were called "middle American" values.

 

[lucifers angel]

Yeah, a bit weird. These are what, in 2004, were called "middle American" values.

i have to have a giggle about this but i wander if they would arrest men and women who masterbate!

 

[Tiassa]

Nay. I don't think the laws go that far. I'm sure they did, once upon a time. But that was probably colonial Massachusetts.

 

[Myles]

When the judges have to revert to fruits and vegetables once again!

To comfort all the veggies out there I can reliably state that judges use liver, male judges that is. I imagine pork sausages would suit the other gender/

 

[Myles]

i have to have a giggle about this but i wander if they would arrest men and women who masterbate!

Flogging would be too good for them. I'd sentence them to six months at the Phelps Corretional Institute for Sex Perverts.

 

[Orleander]

so its not illegal to have them or buy them, its just illegal to sell them. or give them??? Wow, there are whole groups of women at bachelorette parties that would have been hauled off to jail.

 

[lucifers angel]

Flogging would be too good for them. I'd sentence them to six months at the Phelps Corretional Institute for Sex Perverts.

oh please! its a natural sexual act! oke:

 

[Myles]

so its not illegal to have them or buy them, its just illegal to sell them. or give them??? Wow, there are whole groups of women at bachelorette parties that would have been hauled off to jail.

No, it's worse; it's illegal to USE them. And there was I thinking you were a god-fearing ,upright pillar of the community. That explains why you sent me that prison thing. You have been in the big house. You simply must learn to control your sinful urges or you'll end up in the lake of fire.

Don't take my word for it; just ask Adstar !

 

[Myles]

oh please! its a natural sexual act! oke:

It's an act that is prompted by Satan. And the longer you take, the greater the sin. Have you no respect for your body, the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

Verily it is ten times more evil for a woman to indulge in impure thoughts and self-abuse than it is for a man.

Eugenics: 2.8

See also Paul to the Masturbators.

 

[Asguard]

you know this reminds me of billy Conerlies world tour of Australia. They used to force prisioners here to wear these HUGE gloves that stoped you matabating

Anyway back on topic, i dont belive you still have these idiotic laws, for fuck sake whats next, banning HAND CUFFS????????? My partner and I even went to sexbo (if anyone from Australia is reading this that was awsome by the way) and i bougher her dildos and vibrators and more handcuffs and there were male and female strippers there and it was quite alot of fun. Actually as you walk through the door your greated by a girl with a corsate that just pushes her tits up and DEFINITLY leaves nothing to the imagination

 

[CutsieMarie89]

I don't think masturbation is ever mentioned directly in the bible. When I went to Christian school I was told that God is so powerful that even the devil can't do anything without his permission. If God hates sexual diviance so much then why did he make sex pleasurable? I mean if it didn't feel good to do people would probably only have sex when they wanted kids and that is really what God wants isnt it? Besides if God didn't like masturbation or sex toys then why would he make them so readily available in nature? even porcupines use sticks to masturbate.

 

[Tiassa]

I don't think masturbation is ever mentioned directly in the bible.

Some of it comes from the woeful tale of Onan (Genesis 39, I believe), but that story actually focuses on disobedience in the form of coitus interruptus (pulling out). And I'm pretty sure it also has to do with Jesus' broad interpretation of adultery. (I'm drawing a blank on the citation.)

When I went to Christian school I was told that God is so powerful that even the devil can't do anything without his permission. If God hates sexual diviance so much then why did he make sex pleasurable?

The answer isn't ... uh ... satisfying.

Some born-agains, at least, and probably Catholic priests of Joycean lore, would say that it is a test put before us by God, that we might demonstrate our faith by resisting such sinful urges.

Besides if God didn't like masturbation or sex toys then why would he make them so readily available in nature?

And there is ritual lesbian cunninlinguis among certain primates. And bonobos masturbate like, well, yeah. If people f@ck like bunnies, we wank like bonobos.

I believe the religious response would be that we're supposed to be better than the animals.

Don't get me wrong. This is mostly speculation, but I've encountered these points at various times in my life. Biblical faith, for the most part, is a cultivated loathing of the human condition. It's easier to believe in redemption than it is to actually change our condition for the better in life.

 

[CutsieMarie89]

People have told me that the proof that fornicating is wrong is all of the STIs and "emotional" problems that come with pre-marital sex, but masturbating is even safer than sleeping with your spouse. Of course I'm selfish and like only having to worry about myself.

 

[Tiassa]

It's a stale joke with me by now, but I've been known to say of my last partner that I could have better sex with myself.

Sad thing is, it's not really a joke.