In order to protect public morals, the State has a valid exercise in police power when discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation, combating the commercial sale of sex, and protecting minors. Any alleged right associated with obscene devices is not deeply rooted in our Nation's traditions.That quote comes from a brief filed before the Fifth Circuit Court on behalf of the state of Texas. The case is known as Reliable Consultants, Inc. v. Earle (2008). Now, the good news is that the Fifth Circuit took these words and applied the existing case law, and struck down all laws banning the sales of dildos, masturbation sleeves, and sex machines. Since the Supreme Court had already ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that gay people had a right to intimate conduct with each other in the privacy of their own homes, so to did the court rule that individuals had every right to "autonomous" sex. So everyone worried about "owning too many sex toys can get you arrested," you can all stop now.
There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one's genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship. There is no right to promote dildos, vibrators, and other obscene devices.
Oh, by the way, do you know wrote that legal brief? GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz.
Just as every one of Scalia's ominous warnings about the framework of how we understand gays and lesbians has come true, how every ruling that furthered their dignity made Scalia more and more angry, Ted Cruz will now go down in history as the man who made-- and lost-- the argument about whether or not sexbots should be legal.
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