Useless outrage

I know you can't fight the machine, but stuff like this gets my goat, so to speak. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to AL's obscenity law. [I honestly don't know whether the SCOTUS should have heard the case. I'm just peeved that the legislature feels like it has any business being involved in this.]

See back in 1998 the state of AL passed a law (sponsored by one of my local area legislators) to fight obscenity. Now I'm inherently sceptical of such efforts because they all seem to rely on the "I'll know it when I see it" definition of obscenity. Well this particular statute included a little section that would ban the production/distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." In other words: SEX TOYS!

Now I'm not a buyer of such things, but can anyone give me a good reason the government should have a say on whether or not such items can be sold in AL? I've not even heard the "sex toys lead to ..." argument in support of this law. The guy who originally sponsored the legislation hasn't talked about it in years, but he did claim the original measure was designed to control nude dancing and not sex toys, yet he's never taken the opportunity to rewrite the law or even disavow the sex toy part. Further, courts have generally ruled that the state has an interest in upholding "general morality" or something like that. Geesh!

I don't know the woman, but I'm very proud of Sherri Williams, the owner of two "adult" stores in North AL, who has fought the law for 9 years. Though things look bleak for her now, she says she's going to launch a 1st Amendment challenge now. Good luck to her.

In the meantime, the state is gearing up to enforce the law:

Meanwhile, the Alabama attorney general's office will go to federal court
to end an injunction that has delayed enforcement of the ban.

"Now it has been settled. Now the injunction has to be dissolved," said
Chris Bence, chief of staff for Alabama Attorney General Troy King. "That's just
a formality, but it must be done. That will take a couple of days.

"At that point, local district attorneys and local law enforcement will
be able to enforce the law."

Now I suppose the AG has to do that, but I wish his office didn't sound so eager. Instead, I'd rather they take the stance implied by the Madison County (Huntsville) DA:

"It's a pretty low priority," said Morgan. "We've got plenty of work to do. We don't need to be going out drumming up business.

"We've got real crimes."

I'm betting the AG is not going to be real happy about that "real crimes" crack, but I thought it was the best part of the article.

So good luck Ms. Williams. I hope you topple this particular windmill.

Update: Now Ms. Williams has announced her stores will no longer sell sex toys. Now they'll only sell medical devices. Somehow I feel we haven't heard the last of this.