Is There A Lawful Right To A Swing Party?
The city of Duncanville, Tx that is outscirts of Dallas has been drawn in its own petite Jerry Falwell style holy scripture strip battle with the owners of a private “swingers club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private mansion tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville suburban neighborhood. The Cherry Pit promotes on the internet and according to announced information invites as many as 160 visitors to a weekend gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing group sex orgy where visitors pay a cost for entrance and can get involved in pretty much any kind of sex deeds they want on the premises. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the cost of foodstuff, beverages etc and not a fee for the privilege of engaging in sex from the tame to the “Pulp Fiction” apple in the mouth brand of entertainment…. It is whispered for an additional service charge they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)
The whole thing happened earlierin October of 2006 when after few years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the area, the City of Duncanville approved the following order:
“the operation and maintenance of a adult to be unlawful and a public nuisance. Violation of the new ordinance will outcome in a fine of up to $2,500.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the events at the Cherry Pit were more than just a gathering of “friends and family” seeking some enjoyment and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented business and subject to the regulation. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the owners of “The Pit” was the following:
“I don’t recognize what their meaning of a commerce is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can just walk into it and you have to pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow donations. Have you ever had your friends over for a barbecue and asked everyone to pitch in $5 or bring a dish? That is just 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 rule is a excuse to harass their way of life and values and that the rule regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their ethics into my own home and I will stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The founders of the Cherry Pit after that counter sued the city claiming the decree banning adult clubs violates their privacy 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 legal representative, Edward Kline, said the city tries to regulate private acts in a private home 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… Only now the City of Duncanville broadened the ordinance meant to close the club down by making the definition of a adult club more universal and add a local appeal procedure for adult clubs that the city orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the owners of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegitimately operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the state getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can not do cocaine in the isolation of your apartment. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us as well keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to order the sex meeting Texas showing up at the place. They are attempting to order the hosts of the house in encouraging the “Piters” to engage in sex for a fee at their home…. The government 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 government control. There is a huge dissimilarity…
No one is going to advice you that you should not go down to your neighborhood red light area and get a BJ from Lily the local crack addict or Larry the cross dressing pimp or even take any of hombres para parejas swinger to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We of course are aware of however that the act of handing over a dollar in exchange for the BJ makes the otherwise consenting doing illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal action of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it occurs (in addition to whatsoever other wicked action goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a compelling government interest to normalize 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 shut down. While advise for the owners stated that the decree would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.