Do We Have A Legal Right To A Swing Party?
The municipality of Duncanville, Texas which is outscirts of Dallas has been drawn in its own small Jerry Falwell style bible strip fight with the founders of a secluded ”swinger couples club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private landed property tucked in away in an expensive Duncanville housing region. The Cherry Pit advertises on the web and according to announced news invites as many as 130 adults to a weekend social gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing swinger gang bang party where couples pay a fee for admission and are able engage in pretty much any type of sex actions they want on the premises. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entry price is to cover the expence of snacks, beverages etc and not a cost for the privilege of engaging in sex from the tame to the “Pulp Fiction” apple in the mouth brand of entertainment…. It is said for an extra service fee they could even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)
This whole deal started latein October of 2007 when after some years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, traffic and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the district, the City of Duncanville approved the following ordinance:
“the operation and maintenance of a club to be against the law and a public nuisance. Violation of the new order can result in a fine of up to $2,500.”
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 excitement and resoluted that it was in fact a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the ordinance. The respond of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I do not comprehend what their meaning of a industry is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can just 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 grill and asked everybody to pitch in $10 or bring a bowl? That is just what we do. The only requirement to get into my residence is that you 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 excuse to attack their lifestyles and values and that the rule regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their ethics into my personal house and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The owners of the Cherry Pit after that counter sued the city claiming the regulation 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 in fact 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 squabbling has taken place… Just today the City of Duncanville broadened the regulation intended to close the club down by making the explanation of a swinger club more broad and add a local appeal process for swinger clubs that the town orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the owners of the Cherry Pit responsible of illegitimately operating a sexually oriented business.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be permitted to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the state getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can’t do cocaine in the privacy of your property. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to order the swingers in Dallas, TX showing up at the house. They are attempting to control the hosts of the club 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 tell you that you should not go down to your neighborhood red light area and get a BJ from Mollie the local crack addict or Larry the cross dressing pimp or even take any of busco compañero to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We of course are aware of however that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the quickie 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 occurs (in addition to whatsoever other nasty action goes with “the other end”). The government 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 industry. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While counsel for the owners stated that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is uncertain if either of those was ever pursued.