Is There A Constitutional Right To A Swing Party?
The city of Duncanville, Texas that is neighborhood of Dallas has been drawn in its own little Jerry Falwell type bible belt fight with the owners of a secret ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private dwelling tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville suburban region. The Cherry Pit promotes on the internet and according to published news invites as many as 140 adults to a weekend party.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing swinger sex where visitors pay a fee for entry and are allowed engage in almost 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 entry money is to cover the price of food, drinks 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 rumored for an additional service charge they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)
The entire bru ha ha happened backin November of 2006 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 passed the subsequent decree:
“the function and maintenance of a club to be unlawful and a public annoyance. Violation of the new regulation can effect in a fine of up to $2,000.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the parties at the Cherry Pit were more than just a party of “friends and family” looking for some fun and resoluted that it was Really a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the ordinance. The reaction of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was the following:
“I don’t comprehend what their meaning of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can simply walk into it and you shall pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow gifts. Have you ever had your buddies over for a booze and asked everyone to pitch in $5 or bring a plate? That is precisely what we do. The only condition 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 continued to state that she understood that the decree is a guise to harass their way of life and values and that the regulation regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their morality into my private dwelling and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The owners of the Cherry Pit afterward counter sued the city claiming the order banning sex clubs violates their privacy and due process rights. They are mostly using the same argument under which a right to privacy was found under Roe v. Wade. They have to use this scheme in making the right to privacy argument because there is actually no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s legal representative, Ed Klain, said the city is trying to regulate private acts in a private dwelling using the public nuisance law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has stayed open while all the legal wrangling has taken place… Just today the City of Duncanville broadened the regulation designed to close the club down by making the definition of a swinger club more universal and add a local appeal procedure for swinger clubs that the town orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the organizers of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegally operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what do you 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 dwelling. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us as well keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT trying to order the Texas swingers showing up at the house. They are trying to regulate the founders of the club in cheering 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 state regulation. There is a vast difference…
Nobody is going to advice you that you cant go down to your local red light quarter and get a BJ from Sallie the local crack addict or Eddie the cross dressing pimp or even take any of sexo de parejas 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 agreeable action illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal act of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it happens (in addition to whatever other wicked stuff goes with “the other end”). The state has decided that there is a undeniable government interest 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 closed. While counsel for the owners stated that the decree 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