More Sexual Idiocy in Texas

Via Bloomberg:

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to question a Texas law that bars the sale of dildos and other "obscene devices," turning away an appeal by a store clerk facing prosecution.

The justices made no comment in rejecting the appeal, which argued that the law violated a constitutional right to sexual privacy. The court last year turned down a similar challenge to an Alabama law.

Texas is one of a handful of states that ban sexual devices. Courts have upheld laws in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas and struck down restrictions in Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana.

Texas bans the manufacture, sale, distribution and promotion of "devices including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marked as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs."

I guess that means the 'personal massager' that you bought at Sharper Image down at the mall is ok but the pink phallic one you bought at the store down off Route 36 is illegal. Funny.

The case, Acosta v. Texas, was the result of a sting in which Ignacio Sergio Acosta was busted for selling a vibrator. Yep, that's right. The cops in Texas don't have anything better to do that bust people for selling vibrators.

This decision doesn't give me much to look forward to in the newly started term of the Supreme Court.

The new court will see abortion, race and other familiar issues resurface. President Bush's two conservative appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, give opponents of abortion and affirmative action reason to hope the high court will move in their direction. It was only a few years ago that a different mix of justices seemingly settled some of these questions in high-profile cases.

The outcome of new challenges to a type of late-term abortion, called partial-birth abortion by opponents, and the use of race in assigning students to public schools will "tell us a little bit about the soul of the Roberts court," said Steven Shapiro, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

If we can count on equally ridiculous rulings on the rest of these cases we're basically screwed.



What's the matter, guys? Afraid your wife would realize you really aren't all that good in bed if she had one?

Texas Supreme Court Acosta v. Texas Dildos
Photo: AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite