U.S. Judge Voids Law Against Vibrators
Submitted By: Phantom
Article Date: 04/11/1999
URL: http://www.goofball.com/news/990411_vibrator
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Reuters)
``A majority, or at least a significant minority, of the
proscribed devices, as a matter of law, are not obscene under
any established
definition of obscenity,'' U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith
wrote in an 84-page opinion.
A law enacted by the Alabama Legislature last year included an
anti-obscenity statute that barred the sale of items designed to
enhance sexual pleasure, including vibrators and certain kinds
of
condoms. It also outlawed strip clubs.
Monday's ruling came in a lawsuit filed against the state by six
women who either sold vibrators or testified that the devices
and
other sex toys covered by the ruling gave them sexual pleasure
they could not otherwise achieve.
The six women were represented by the American Civil Liberties
Union.
There was no immediate word from the state on the ruling.
A federal judge Monday
struck down an Alabama law that banned the sale of
vibrators,
saying
the state had failed to prove the devices were obscene.