SOMEONE JUST LOST THE LADIES …

The Bible-thumping “Republican” at the heart of 2016’s biggest sex scandal once led the charge to criminalize dildos in his adopted home state of Texas.

And yes … there went any chance of him winning the women’s vote.

Ted Cruz – who sex scandal made waves last month – is the subject of a penetrating exposé in left-leaning Mother Jones this week. The story revolves around a 2004 case in which the Lone Star State attempted to ban both the advertising and sale of sex toys. The devices themselves were legal, but anyone selling them faced up to two years in jail.

Cruz – then the solicitor general of the state – defended this dildo ban, overseeing the submission of a legal brief in its defense. According to this brief, Texas had a right to pass legislation “discouraging prurient interests in sexual gratification.”

“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 brief noted.

Wow …

Not only that, the brief equated the use of sex toys with “hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy.”

Cruz lost his case. The U.S. court of appeals for the fifth circuit rejected the Texas law in 2008, saying Texans had a constitutional right to “legally use a safe sexual device during private intimate moments alone or with another.”

The court also rejected Cruz’s attempt to equate dildos and prostitutes.

“The sale of a device that an individual may choose to use during intimate conduct with a partner in the home is not the ‘sale of sex,'” the court found.

Indeed it isn’t … although this website has consistently argued in favor of decriminalizing prostitution as well.

Cruz and then-Texas attorney general (now governor) Greg Abbott contemplated taking the dildo case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but ultimately decided against it.

Good …

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: What consenting adults do behind closed doors is their own damn business. They key words being “consenting,” “adults” and “behind closed doors.”

Unfortunately, attempts to restrict the sale of these devices continues … including zoning ordinances targeting brick-and-mortar adult entertainment storefronts.

Ridiculous …

We’ve been generally supportive of Cruz over the course of his political career. We appreciate his opposition to fiscally liberal status quo “Republicans” in the U.S. Senate, and he’s adopted some genuine pro-liberty positions in the past.

Unfortunately, his sanctimonious moralism continues to cloud his ideology … leading him to confer upon government authority it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) possess.