Sandy Springs, Georgia- After two months of deliberations, the city of Sandy Springs has its own obscenity law.

The ordinance, passed unanimously, makes it unlawful to sell, lend, rent, lease, give or even advertise obscene material. And it provides a list of acts to be defined as obscene, including sexual acts and sex toys. It protects anyone needing the material for a sexuality class or as prescribed by a doctor.

In February, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s obscenity law was unconstitutional.

The state Legislature is expected to revisit the law during its next session, but for now local governments must operate without one.

City Attorney Wendell Willard said that the law would “fill a void” and provide the city a means of “enforcement” as well as “criminal prosecution of what would be obscene.”

In June, Cobb County commissioners passed a similar ordinance.

But for the Sandy Springs City Council, which has already gone after adult entertainment establishments by banning alcohol sales at nude dance clubs, the law was not an easy sell. Those establishments are suing the city.

“The concern was do we want to become the poster child for this issue?” asked City Councilman Rusty Paul, who twice proposed tabling the vote to obtain more information and guidance. “After reviewing it, we felt convinced it was something we need to do to give us a tool to regulate and control the kind of material distributed in the community.”

Atlanta-based attorney Alan Begner [pictured], whose clients include the Sandy Springs adult entertainment stores Love Shack, Starship Enterprise and Extreme Video, said the law won’t help with regulation, but it will serve as part of the city’s plan to “do away with the customer’s rights to read or buy sexually explicit material in Sandy Springs.”

“I still return to the question of ‘why do they need this law?’ ”

Begner asked. “The only explanation is … to harass stores and clerks for selling videos that are not illegal and the fallout for that could be, again, substantial.”

Both Paul and Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos denied any forthcoming crackdown on adult entertainment retail stores.

We’re not “going to go out and declare war,” Paul said. “That’s not what the intent was. We just felt: Go ahead and give us something we can use in case the establishments already here decided to bring more graphic material in.”