Do We Have A Legitimate Right To A Swing Party?
The town of Duncanville, Texas which is suburb of Dallas has been drawn in its own little Jerry Falwell type bible strip conflict with the owners of a privileged ”adult party club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private mansion tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville suburban community. The Cherry Pit posts on the web and according to published news invites as many as 120 adults to a weekend social gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been organizing adult-oriented parties where couples pay a charge for entrance and can get involved in pretty much any kind of sexualgroup sex deeds they want on the location. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance charge is to cover the price of snacks, beverages 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 said for an additional service fee they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)
The entire thing started backin October of 2006 when after some years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the district, the City of Duncanville passed the subsequent ordinance:
“the function and maintenance of a swinger to be against the law and a public nuisance. Violation of the new regulation can result in a fine of up to $3,000.”
The city of Duncanville then decided that the events at the Cherry Pit were more than simply a party of “friends and family” looking for some enjoyment and resoluted that it was actually a sexually oriented business and subject to the regulation. The respond of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was the following:
“I don’t comprehend what their classification of a industry is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can just walk into it and you shall pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I accept contributions. Have you ever had your buddies over for a grill and asked everybody to pitch in $10 or bring a food? 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 assumed that the rule is a guise to harass their lifestyles and values and that the decree regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their morality into my own dwelling and I will stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The founders of the Cherry Pit subsequently counter sued the city claiming the decree banning sex clubs violates their seclusion 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 basically no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s legal advisor, Ed Kline, said the city is trying to regulate private acts in a private house using the public nuisance law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has remained open while all the legal backbiting has taken place… Just now the City of Duncanville broadened the decree intended to close the club down by making the explanation of a swinger club more broad and add a local appeal procedure for swinger clubs that the city orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the organizers of the Cherry Pit accountable of illegitimately operating a sexually oriented company.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be permitted to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the government getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can not do cocaine in the privacy 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 control the Texas TX swingers showing up at the place. They are attempting to control the hosts of the home in cheering 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 regulation. There is a vast dissimilarity…
Nobody is going to advice you that you should not go down to your local red light quarter and get a BJ from Mollie the local crack addict or Billy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of busco pareja swinger to the Cherry Pit for some entertainment. We of course know however that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the BJ makes the otherwise consenting action illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal act of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it occurs (in addition to whatsoever other nasty action goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a compelling government awareness 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 shut down. While advise for the owners declared that the conclusion would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.