About four years ago in the paper version of Unfair Park, we chronicled the plight of Burleson's Joanne Webb, who was arrested by local police for selling dildos and other self-help devices out of her house. You remember, right, "Passion Parties"? (Where -- hey -- "every day is Valentine's Day"!) The charges against Webb were eventually tossed out, but authorities claimed they were just enforcing Texas' law, since the 1970s, that made it a criminal act to sell sex toys.
Well, that law is no mas: Yesterday, Justice Thomas M. Reavley of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said that banning the sale of dildos in the state of Texas is unconstitutional. As in: "Whatever one might think or believe about the use of these devices, government interference with their personal and private use violates the Constitution." So, happy Valentine's Day! Every day! --Robert Wilonsky