Is There A Legal Right To A Swing Party?
The municipality of Duncanville, Tx which is outscirts of Dallas has been involved in its own little Jerry Falwell manner holy scripture strip clash with the owners of a private “adult club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private house tucked in away in an expensive Duncanville suburban district. The Cherry Pit posts on the web and according to published reports draws as many as 120 members to a weekend gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been organizing private parties where visitors pay a fee for admission and can engage in pretty much any kind of sexualgroup sex deeds they want on the site. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entry fee is to cover the cost of foodstuff, drinks 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 money they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
This whole deal happened earlierin December of 2007 when after several years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, traffic and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the neighborhood, the City of Duncanville approved the subsequent regulation:
“the function and maintenance of a sex to be illegal and a public nuisance. Violation of the new ordinance will effect in a fine of up to $2,500.”
The city of Duncanville then decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than simply a gathering of “friends and family” looking for some fun and determined that it was Really a sexually oriented business and subject to the ordinance. The response of Julie Norris, one of the owners of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I don’t know what their classification of a industry 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 accept donations. Have you ever had your friends over for a barbecue and asked everyone to pitch in $5 or bring a plate? That is precisely what we do. The only requirement to get into my residence is that anyone call and let me know that you are coming and you are on my reservation list.”
Ms Norris went on to state that she assumed that the decree is a guise to harass their way of life 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 principles into my personal dwelling and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The founders of the Cherry Pit afterward 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 manner in making the right to privacy argument because there is in fact no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s legal advisor, Ed Klein, said the city tries to regulate private acts in a private home using the public irritation 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 regulation designed to shut the club down by making the classification of a sex club more broad and add a local petition process for adult clubs that the town orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the owners of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegitimately 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 obviously can’t do drugs in the confidentiality of your property. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT trying to regulate the hot wives in Texas showing up at the venue. They are attempting to control the hosts of the club 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 control. There is a vast difference…
No one is going to tell you that you can not go down to your neighborhood red light area and get a blowjob from Kathie the local crack addict or Billy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of parejas swingers to the Cherry Pit for some entertainment. We of course know however that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the quickie makes the otherwise consenting action 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 whatever other nasty stuff goes with “the other end”). The government has decided that there is a forceful government awareness to control 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 company. The Cherry Pit has since been shut down. 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.
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