Do We Have A Legal Right To A Swing Party?
The town of Duncanville, Texas which is neighborhood of Dallas has been involved in its own petite Jerry Falwell type bible strip combat with the owners of a secret ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private manor tucked in away in an expensive Duncanville residential area. The Cherry Pit posts on the internet and according to announced information invites as many as 150 swingers to a weekend party.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing group orgy parties where visitors pay a cost for entry and are allowed engage in almost any kind of sex activity they want on the location. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the expence of foodstuff, soft drinks etc and not a fee for the opportunity of engaging in sex from the tame to the “Pulp Fiction” apple in the mouth brand of entertainment…. It is rumored for an additional service fee they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
This whole deal happened earlierin December of 2007 when after several years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, traffic and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the neighborhood, the City of Duncanville passed the following decree:
“the operation and maintenance of a club to be unlawful and a public irritation. Violation of the new ordinance will outcome in a fine of up to $2,000.”
The city of Duncanville then decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than just a gathering of “friends and family” looking for some fun and resoluted that it was Really a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the decree. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was the following:
“I don’t recognize what their classification of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can simply walk into it and you must pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I accept gifts. Have you ever had your friends over for a grill and asked everybody to pitch in $5 or bring a food? That is exactly what we do. The only requirement to get into my house is that you call and let me know that you are coming and you are on my reservation list.”
Ms Norris went on to state that she understood that the ordinance is a guise to harass their way of life and values and that the regulation regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their ethics into my private home and I have to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The founders of the Cherry Pit then counter sued the city claiming the decree banning sex clubs violates their solitude and due process rights. They are mainly using the same argument under which a right to privacy was found under Roe v. Wade. They have to use this method in making the right to privacy argument because there is really no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s attorney, Ed Klain, said the city is trying to regulate private acts in a private dwelling using the public nuisance law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has stayed open while all the official squabbling has taken place… Just today the City of Duncanville broadened the rule intended to shut the club down by making the definition of a sex club more general and add a local appeal procedure for couples clubs that the city orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the organizers of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegally operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be tolerated to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the government getting its’ rocks off?
You evidently can not do heroin in the seclusion of your apartment. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to order the swinging couples in TX showing up at the venue. They are trying to control the owners of the place in allowing the “Piters” to engage in sex for a fee at their home…. The state is NOT regulating where and with whom you can have sex with. They are telling the owners of the Pit that if they are charging you to do it, they are subject to state control. There is a big difference…
Nobody is going to advice you that you should not go down to your neighborhood red light district and get a blowjob from Mollie the local crack addict or Larry the cross dressing pimp or even take any of intercavio de parejas to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We of course know nonetheless that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the blowjob makes the otherwise consenting operation illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal operation of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it happens (in addition to whatsoever other wicked doing goes with “the other end”). The government has decided that there is a undeniable government awareness to control and/or criminalize such acts…
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the owner of the Cherry Pit guilty on 10 counts of running a sexually oriented commerce. The Cherry Pit has since been closed. While advise for the owners declared that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.
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