Williams v. Attorney General of Alabama

The Alabama Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act (AOEA) prohibited commercial distribution of sex toys. Specifically, the AOEA prohibited the sale of any device that was designed or marketed primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs. The use, possession, or gifting of sex toys was not prohibited. People in Alabama were not prohibited from going to another state to purchase a sex toy and returning to Alabama with it. Additionally, the AOEA did not prohibit the sale of sex toys for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial, or law-enforcement purpose. On behalf of individual users and vendors of sex toys (plaintiffs), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Alabama (defendant) to enjoin the enforcement of the AOEA, alleging that the law burdened and violated sexual-device users’ right to privacy and personal autonomy under the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court permanently enjoined enforcement, concluding that the AOEA had no rational basis and rejecting the ACLU’s argument that the AOEA violated any fundamental rights. The court of appeals reversed, finding that the promotion and preservation of public morality provided a rational basis for the AOEA; affirmed the district court’s rejection of the ACLU’s fundamental-rights argument; and remanded for consideration of the fundamental-rights challenge as applied. On remand, the district court granted the ACLU’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the AOEA unconstitutionally burdened the right to use sex toys within private, adult consensual sexual relationships and announced a fundamental right to sexual privacy. The district court enjoined the AOEA’s enforcement. Alabama appealed.