Do We Have A Lawful Right To A Swing Party?
The city of Duncanville, Texas that is suburb of Dallas has been involved in its own petite Jerry Falwell style bible strip battle with the owners of a secluded ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private estate tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville housing region. The Cherry Pit posts on the web and according to announced news invites as many as 120 visitors to a weekend party.
The Cherry Pit has been organizing adult house party where guests pay a fee for entrance and can get involved in mosly any type of sex activity they want on the location. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the cost of snacks, drinks etc and not a price for the opportunity of engaging in sex from the tame to the “Pulp Fiction” apple in the mouth brand of entertainment…. It is whispered for an extra service money they could even “bring out the gimp“….(just a joke)
The entire thing started backin December of 2007 when after several years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the neighborhood, the City of Duncanville approved the next decree:
“the operation and maintenance of a swinger to be unlawful and a public irritation. Violation of the new decree can result in a fine of up to $3,000.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than just a gathering of “friends and family” seeking some excitement and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the law. The respond of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I don’t know what their definition of a commerce is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can simply walk into it and you have to pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I accept donations. Have you ever had your friends over for a booze and asked everybody to pitch in $10 or bring a dish? That is precisely what we do. The only condition to get into my home is that a person call and let me know that you are coming and you are on my reservation list.”
Ms Norris continued to state that she understood that the decree is a guise to assault their lifestyles and beliefs and that the regulation regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their principles into my personal dwelling and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The owners of the Cherry Pit after that counter sued the city claiming the decree banning sex clubs violates their solitude and due process rights. They are mostly 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 actually no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s legal representative, Ed Klein, 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 remained open while all the official backbiting has taken place… Just now the City of Duncanville broadened the decree intended to shut the club down by making the definition of a adult club more common and add a local plea procedure for swinger clubs that the town orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the organizers of the Cherry Pit responsible of illegally operating a sexually oriented business.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be tolerated to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the government getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can’t do heroin in the privacy of your home. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to regulate the swinging couples in TX showing up at the club. They are trying to regulate the hosts of the club 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 punishment. There is a colossal distinction…
No one is going to advice you that you cant go down to your neighborhood red light area and get a BJ from Lily the local crack addict or Johnny the cross dressing pimp or even take any of parejas sexo to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We of course know however that the act of handing over a dollar in exchange for the quickie makes the otherwise consenting act illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal action of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it happens (in addition to whatsoever other nasty stuff goes with “the other end”). The government has decided that there is a undeniable government interest to adjust 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 industry. The Cherry Pit has since been closed. While warnings for the owners stated that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.
Tags: adult clubs, adult party, choice, community, constitutional rights, legal rights, orgy, parties, privacy, swingers, texas