Fun things you find on Westlaw.

Williams v. Attorney General of Alabama, 2004 WL 1681149 (11th Cir. 2004)—“Civil liberties group, on behalf of various individual users and vendors of sexual devices, brought action challenging constitutionality of Alabama statute prohibiting commercial distribution of any device primarily used for stimulation of human genitals.” Unfortunately, the ACLU lost. According to the 11th Circuit (covering GA, FLA, ALA, and other purportedly red states), the right to use vibrators, dildos, anal beads, or artificial vaginas is not “one of those fundamental rights and liberties which are, objectively, deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition, and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.” This is an understatement. But let’s not forget that up until last year, sex between consenting but unmarried adults (straight, gay, group, “sodomy”—bestiality and child rape are excluded by definition) was not a fundamental right accorded by the U.S. Constitution either. Meaning that had your state chose to do so, it could have criminalized all the sex that you have had in your life (none of you are married, so this is a safe presumption). Anyhow. Reasonable minds may differ on whether sexual privacy encompasses the privilege of using sex toys. I'm personally ambivalent. Sex toys have their place in the world, but let's not get carried away here. More significantly, this was a stupid piece of public interest litigation. While I’m no fan of running into federal court and asking a judge to tinker with the Constitution in order to achieve some policy result that the legislative branch would never accept (Bush fondly calls this “legislating from the bench”—he says this so much that you’d think he was trained monkey), I understand why civil libertarians were so heartened by the Lawrence decision. Gay adoption could have eventually piggy-backed that ruling and if I were gay, that would be important to me. But the stupid ACLU injured the cause when it litigated this case and ultimately obtained an adverse ruling by one federal court of appeal which severely restricted the meaning of Lawrence. And for what? Vibrators, dildos, anal beads, or artificial vaginas, that’s what.