Do We Have A Constitutional Right To A Swing Party?
The municipality of Duncanville, Texas that is suburb of Dallas has been involved in its own little Jerry Falwell manner holy scripture strip fight with the founders of a secluded “swingers club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private mansion tucked in away in an upscale Duncanville housing district. The Cherry Pit announces on the internet and according to advertised news draws as many as 100 adults to a weekly party.
The Cherry Pit has been holding swinger party sex where couples pay a cost for admission and can engage in pretty much any type of sex activity they want on the premises. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the expence of food, beverages etc and not a charge for the benefit 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 kidding)
The whole deal happened latein October of 2007 when past some 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 following ordinance:
“the operation and maintenance of a swinger to be unlawful and a public annoyance. Violation of the new order will outcome in a fine of up to $2,500.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than just a gathering of “friends and family” looking for some excitement and determined that it was in fact a sexually oriented industry and subject to the ordinance. The answer of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was the following:
“I do not recognize what their classification of a industry is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can just walk into it and you should pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow contributions. Have you ever had your buddies over for a grill and asked everybody to pitch in $5 or bring a dish? That is precisely what we do. The only condition to get into my house is that a person 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 excuse to assault their way of life 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 ethics into my own dwelling and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The owners of the Cherry Pit subsequently counter sued the city claiming the order banning adult clubs violates their seclusion 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 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 attorney, Ed Klein, 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 stayed open while all the legal squabbling has taken place… Just today the City of Duncanville broadened the decree intended to close the club down by making the classification of a adult club more general and add a local plea procedure for couples clubs that the town orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the founders of the Cherry Pit guilty of unlawfully operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be permitted 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 as well keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT trying to regulate the swinger personals in Texas showing up at the club. They are attempting to control the owners of the home 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 administration. There is a huge distinction…
No one is going to tell you that you cant go down to your neighborhood red light quarter and get a BJ from Lily the local crack addict or Mikey the cross dressing pimp or even take any of swinger 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 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 action goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a forceful state awareness 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 commerce. The Cherry Pit has since been shut down. While warnings for the owners declared 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