Obscene Device Law Overturned In 5th Circuit
NEW ORLEANS – Prominent First Amendment attorney H. Louis Sirkin won a stunning victory yesterday when a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Texas statute making it illegal to promote or sell sexual devices, and remanded the case for reconsideration in concert with its ruling.
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Texas' "obscene devices" statute has been on the books since 1979, when the state legislature also revised and expanded the scope of its obscenity law in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Miller v. California. The Fifth Circuit opinion, in the case originally captioned Reliable Consultants, Inc. and PHE, Inc. v. Ronnie Earle and the State of Texas -- apparently, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's name has been substituted for Travis County DA Ronnie Earle in later pleadings -- notes a 1985 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals opinion which concluded that there was no constitutional right to "stimulate ... another's genitals with an object designed or marketed as useful primarily for that purpose." That decision led to the now-familiar situation in Fifth Circuit adult stores where vibrators, dildos and other novelties could be sold as long as they didn't too closely resemble a penis or vagina.
Okay, you can't mind your business because the device you use is considered a unitasker.
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