The Volokh Conspiracy
[Eugene Volokh, February 13, 2008 at 11:16am] Trackbacks
Dildoes Going to the Supreme Court?

The Texas ban on dildoes -- yes, it expressly mentions "dildo" -- has just been struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The law, the court held, violates Lawrence v. Texas right of "adult consensual sexual intimacy in the home."

On this, the Fifth Circuit disagrees with the Eleventh Circuit, which upheld a similar Alabama law last year. Sounds like there's a solid split, so there's a decent chance that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in to resolve this (though there's of course no guarantee).

Thanks to the invaluable How Appealing for the pointer.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. The Fifth Circuit Ban on Sex Devices:
  2. Dildoes Going to the Supreme Court?
105 Comments
[David Kopel, February 13, 2008 at 2:40pm] Trackbacks
The Fifth Circuit Ban on Sex Devices:

The 2-1 Circuit Court of Appeals decision against the Texas ban was rightly decided, at least according to an article that Glenn Harlan Reynolds and I wrote for the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. The 5th Circuit decision relies, reasonably, on Lawrence v. Texas. Although our article is pre-Lawrence, we suggest that such cases amount to a judicial re-invigoration of traditional understandings of the police power--and a rejection of view that state authority is a limitless ocean in which a few islands of rights may be found. Rather, the police power is itself finite, and simply is not broad enough to reach conduct such as that banned by the Texas statute.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. The Fifth Circuit Ban on Sex Devices:
  2. Dildoes Going to the Supreme Court?
96 Comments

PicoSearch
Help