Posted on 04/14/2016 4:49:04 PM PDT by drewh
Ted Cruz once argued that Americans have no constitutional right to bear dildos, that the government has a legitimate interest in discouraging "autonomous sex," and that allowing the sale of sex toys is the first step on the road to legal incest.
This history comes courtesy of David Corn, who went searching for skeletons in Cruz's closet and stumbled across a bunch of dildo baggage instead. On Wednesday, the Mother Jones magazine published an exposé detailing Cruz's defense of a ban on sex-toy sales while serving as the Texas solicitor general. Back in 2004, several adult-plaything providers challenged a Texas law that banned the sale and promotion of "obscene devices." At the time, only three other states had similar laws on the books. The plaintiffs founded their challenge on the Fourteenth Amendment's right to privacy, arguing, among other things, that some couples are unable to engage in intercourse without the aid of sex toys, or else require them to avoid passing along contagious diseases such as HIV. A federal judge turned the company down, it appealed, and in 2007 it fell to Cruz's legal team to keep dildos from undermining the fabric of Western civilization.
In a 76-page brief calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to stand with the lower court, Cruz's office wrote that "any alleged right associated with obscene devices" is not "deeply rooted in the Nation's history and traditions." While Cruz acknowledged that, after Lawrence v. Texas overturned sodomy laws, the government could not ban the "private use of obscene devices," it could ban their sale so as to uphold "public morals." What's more, while the government can't forbid citizens from masturbating, it has a legitimate interest in "discouraging ... autonomous sex." Cruz's team went on to declare, "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."
The appeals court disagreed in a 2–1 decision, which held that the government has no business encroaching on Americans' most private of affairs. But Cruz and Texas attorney general Greg Abbott (who is now the state's governor) battled on, filing a brief requesting a hearing before the full court of appeals, claiming the three-judge panel had overstepped the precedent set by Lawrence. Cruz's office argued that the prior ruling would give all manner of deviants grounds to claim that "engaging in consensual adult incest or bigamy" must be legal as they have a right to "enhance their sexual experiences." They lost the motion and ultimately chose not to bring the matter to the Supreme Court.
Cruz has never discussed his views on dildo commerce during the 2016 campaign, and it's unlikely that many of his supporters know his history on such matters. It's difficult to gauge the effect this news will have on Cruz's standing with the electorate, as exit polls neglected to ask Republican primarygoers about their affinity for sexual devices. Regardless, the American people deserve to know whether Cruz still holds such an expansive view of the government's right to regulate public morality. There are undoubtedly no small number of patriots in this country who would tell President Cruz's jackbooted thugs, "I'll give you my dildo when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."
That is the problem lawyers..you pay them and they’re suddenly for or against whatever you want.
For peons like us that definitely trumps God-given rights! /s
Ted just doesn’t know how to go along to get along. ;-)
Cruz was the Texas solicitor general. He was employed to argue for the state. No way of knowing what his personal feelings were...but I’m also not sure what “due process” has to do with masturbation, let alone why it requires the sale of equipment to use during masturbation.
The only reason he tried to ban didlos was because he couldn't get any cunninglius.
That seems to be where we are. Every official “should be” a loose cannon, doing whatever voter X thinks is best at any given time, irrespective of law ... and woe betide him if voter X changes his mind, not to mention his/her gender.
With each other.
If any pinko writer knows about Dildos, it is David Corn.
His slogan is “A Dildo is a man’s best friend”.
Favorite song: “Me and My Dildo”
What a piece of trash he is and always has been.
And you really never made it past E2. hee hee
Stupid? No, I just read that he said sex is for procreating and people shouldn’t be allowed to masturbate. Cruz is the one who’s stupid. And everyone who supports him.
Oh, and do you always answer your own questions? That sounds like someone with a mental problem.
Give me auto-eroticism or give me the next best thing.
Lincoln was the Great Emancipator, Reagan the Great Communicator. Looks like Ted is the Great Non-Fornicator, although if the rumours are right, one would have to say that he walks the walk when he talks the talk of no auto-erotic substitute for the real thing.
So one then wonders, what happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? We hold these truths to be self-evident, there isn’t always a lady present.
Mr. Hefner, tear down that pay-wall.
I suppose they are going to post this until they go blind. . . .
Where did you get the information that I was only a Private First Class?
Where did you read that Cruz said that people shouldn’t be allowed masterbate? Mother Jones?
Yikes! How dare you share the real truth! :o)
Well, I guess this explains a lot of the hatred against Cruz on FR.
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