Is There A Legitimate Right To A Swing Party?
The town of Duncanville, Texas which is neighborhood of Dallas has been drawn in its own small Jerry Falwell manner bible strip combat with the founders of a secluded “swingers club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private house tucked in away in an upscale Duncanville suburban community. The Cherry Pit announces on the web and according to published news draws as many as 100 adults to a weekend party.
The Cherry Pit has been holding private sexy parties where guests pay a cost for entrance and can get involved in pretty much any type of sex activity they want on the site. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance money is to cover the expence of snacks, drinks etc and not a cost 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 additional service charge they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
The entire thing started backin December of 2006 when past few years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the district, the City of Duncanville approved the next regulation:
“the operation and maintenance of a adult to be unlawful and a public annoyance. Violation of the new ordinance can effect in a fine of up to $2,000.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than simply a party of “friends and family” looking for some excitement and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the law. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was the following:
“I do not comprehend what their definition of a industry 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 allow gifts. Have you ever had your friends over for a grill and asked everybody to pitch in $5 or bring a dish? That is just what we do. The only requirement to get into my residence 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 ordinance is a excuse to harass their lifestyles and values and that the order regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their morality into my private territory and I am going to 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 regulation banning sex clubs violates their confidentiality and due process rights. They are basically using the same argument under which a right to privacy was found under Roe v. Wade. They have to use this technique 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, Edward Klain, 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 stayed open while all the official wrangling has taken place… Just now the City of Duncanville broadened the ordinance designed to shut the club down by making the definition of a sex club more broad and add a local petition procedure for swinger clubs that the town orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the organizers of the Cherry Pit accountable of illegitimately operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the authorities getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can not do cocaine in the privacy of your home. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us as well keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to control the swingers in Texas showing up at the venue. They are attempting to order the founders of the place in encouraging 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 management. There is a colossal distinction…
Nobody is going to tell you that you cant go down to your local red light district and get a BJ from Mollie the local crack addict or Bobby the cross dressing pimp or even take any of busco compañero to the Cherry Pit for some entertainment. We of course are aware of nonetheless that the act of handing over a dollar in exchange for the blowjob makes the otherwise consenting action 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 whatever other nasty action goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a undeniable government concern to regulate 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 business. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While advice for the owners stated that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.
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