By Associated Press
Washingon, DC – The owner of adult stores in Alabama launched her final appeal Monday against a state ban on selling sex toys, asking the U-S Supreme Court to throw out the law as an unconstitutional intrusion into the bedroom.
If the court declines to take the case -- as it did in 2005 -- Alabama residents shopping for sexual novelties could soon have to look outside the state's borders.
Sherri Williams has waged a mostly losing battle against the law since the state legislature passed it in 1998.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt her the latest blow on Valentine's Day, upholding the ban as constitutional and saying the state's interest in public morality is a rational basis for the statute.
So far, however, the state has held off on enforcing the law as the case winds through the appeals process.
The Alabama "anti-obscenity" law bans the sale of sex toys but not their possession. State residents may lawfully purchase sex toys out of state for use in Alabama, or use them if the devices have other recognized medical or therapeutic uses.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)