A federal appeals court overturned a Texas ban on sex-toy sales on Feb 12. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law, which made it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices and carried a punishment of up to two years in jail, violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to privacy.
The owners of Dreamer’s and La Rouge Boutique, along with the retail distributor, Adam and Eve, filed suit in the Austin federal court in 2004 to challenge the constitutionality of the law. When a federal judge dismissed their suit, saying the Constitution did not protect their right to promote sex toys publicly, they appealed.
In its decision, the appeals court cited the 2003 Supreme Court opinion in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, which struck down bans on consensual sex between homosexual couples.
Alabama remains the only state with a ban on sex-toy sales.
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