ATLANTA (CN) – In a ruling on the “pursuit of orgasms by artificial means,” the 11th Circuit upheld an Alabama law banning the sale of sex toys and devices, to promote public morality.

Suing on behalf of citizens who use or sell “sexual devices,” the ACLU sought to enjoin enforcement of the law that prohibits Alabama residents from distributing any device designed or marketed to stimulate human genitals. The ACLU claimed the law unconstitutionally intrudes “deeply into the sphere of individual decision-making about sexuality” and sexual intimacy.

But the circuit held that the statute does not target private activity, but public, commercial activity. It affirmed a trial court’s summary dismissal of the ACLU challenge and found that the state’s interest in promoting public morality is a sufficient rational basis for the ban.