Do You Have A Legal Right To A Swing Party?
The municipality of Duncanville, Texas that is suburb of Dallas has been drawn in its own petite Jerry Falwell type holy scripture strip combat with the founders of a secret ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private mansion tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville residential area. The Cherry Pit announces on the internet and according to published information draws as many as 140 visitors to a weekly gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been organizing house parties where couples pay a cost for admission and can get involved in almost any kind of sexualgroup sex activity they want on the site. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the expence of snacks, drinks etc and not a fee for the benefit 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 fee they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)
The entire deal happened backin December of 2006 when after some years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, noisy visitors and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the district, the City of Duncanville passed the following decree:
“the operation and maintenance of a adult to be illegal and a public annoyance. Violation of the new decree will result in a fine of up to $2,000.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the events at the Cherry Pit were more than just a meeting of “friends and family” looking for some fun and determined that it was Really a sexually oriented business and subject to the law. The response of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I do not know what their classification of a industry 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 donations. Have you ever had your buddies over for a barbecue and asked everyone to pitch in $10 or bring a food? That is precisely 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 went on to state that she believed that the regulation is a excuse to attack their lifestyles 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 ethics into my personal home and I will 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 order banning swingers 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 manner in making the right to privacy argument because there is really no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s legal representative, Edward Klein, said the city tries to regulate private acts in a private house using the public irritation law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has remained open while all the official backbiting has taken place… Only today the City of Duncanville broadened the decree designed to lock the club down by making the classification of a sex club more general and add a local appeal process for couples 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 company.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the authorities getting its’ rocks off?
You evidently can’t do cocaine in the isolation of your house. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT trying to order the seeking an affair in Texas showing up at the place. They are attempting to order the owners of the home in allowing 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 colossal distinction…
Nobody is going to advice you that you should not go down to your neighborhood red light area and get a BJ from Mollie the local crack addict or Billy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of busco compañero to the Cherry Pit for some entertainment. We surely know nonetheless 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 act of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it happens (in addition to whatever other wicked doing goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a forceful state concern 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 business. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While advice for the owners stated that the conclusion would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.