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5TH U.S. CIRCUIT COUT OF APPEALS VINDICATES RETAILER IN SEX TOY BAN LAWSUIT
By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer 02-18-2008 12:00 a.m. PDT
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, LA, has overturned a Texas law dated back to the 70's that made it a crime to market, promote or sell sex toys in the state. On Wednesday February 13, 2008, in a 2-1 opinion tapped "The U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence vs. Texas, as unconstitutional.
Advetisement
The Texas law prohibited private consensual sex among people of the same gender. The ruling created a broad and yet undefined constitutional right to sexual privacy.
Justice Thomas M. Reavely wrote his opinion..."Whatever one might think or believe about the use of these [sex toy] devices, government interference in their personal and private use, violates the Constitution."
Justice Thomas M. Reavely continued to write "Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its law to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the ruling continued. "This case is not about public sex.
It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of of consensual private intimate conduct."
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The case goes back to 2004, when Reliable Consultants Inc., owner of two Dreamers stores and Le Rouge Boutique in Austin, filed suit in a U.S. District Court, challenging the sex toy ban and seeking a declaratory judgment against its enforcement. Phil Harvey Enterprises (PHE) later joined the case as plaintiff as well.
Though the parties filing the suit had never been prosecuted in Texas under the statute, they claimed that its existence harmed their businesses by preventing customers from purchasing those products. All the Plaintiffs were represented by well-respected law firm Sirkin, Pinales & Schwartz LLP of Cincinatti, OH. The have been and continue to be dedicated to defending and protecting the rights of all people in OHIO as well as nationwide.
The judge in that lawsuit dismissed the case, finding no constitutional right to promote such "obscene" devices, but the plaintiffs appealed and were vindicated on Wednesday February 13, 2008.
