Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Adult Store Appeal

Marietta Officials Praise Decision
POSTED: 4:57 am EST January 14, 2005
MARIETTA -- Residents craving sex toys will have to search the big city or elsewhere after the U.S. Supreme Court refused this week to hear an appeal filed by two adult entertainment stores shut down in 2003.

"Marietta's a much better place without those stores. Let Atlanta have them," Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway said Thursday.

Marietta city officials say the high court's ruling proves the city's adult entertainment ordinance is airtight, and they expect cities across the nation to use Marietta's ordinance as a template for their own.

The city's decision to revoke the stores' business licenses has survived three appeals, including one in the Georgia Supreme Court, city attorney Doug Haynie said.
Despite the fact that sexually explicit material is protected by the First Amendment, Georgia law prohibits the sale of sex toys. But attorney Alan Begner, who represents adult stores across the state, said that law has been selectively enforced.

"For some reason, Marietta decided to go to war," Begner said. "Sex toys are illegal in Georgia but are sold widely because it's a stupid law and nobody cares."

Begner said he did not expect the high court's decision to have much effect outside Marietta, which shut down the two sex shops, Inserection and Waterpipe World, and a third in July 2003.
The city has an 11-page adult-entertainment ordinance under which sex shops can operate, but within strict guidelines. Begner, who claimed the law made Marietta look "foolish," said he was concerned that Marietta may use the Supreme Court decision to stop other sex shops from opening.

Dunaway said, though, that Marietta was open for business to any merchant operating within city laws.

posted by Secret Playthings Sex Toys @ 5:01 AM