Do You Have A Legal Right To A Swing Party?
The city of Duncanville, Tx which is suburb of Dallas has been drawn in its own petite Jerry Falwell style bible belt conflict with the owners of a privileged ”swinger couples club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private dwelling tucked in away in an expensive Duncanville housing neighborhood. The Cherry Pit promotes on the internet and according to announced information draws as many as 120 swingers to a weekly social gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been holding swinging party sex where couples pay a fee for entrance and are able get involved in mosly any kind of sex actions they want on the premises. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance price is to cover the cost of foodstuff, drinks etc and not a charge 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 will even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
The whole bru ha ha started earlierin November of 2006 when past few years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, traffic and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the area, the City of Duncanville approved the subsequent decree:
“the operation and maintenance of a club to be against the law and a public nuisance. Violation of the new decree can effect 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 gathering of “friends and family” seeking some fun and resoluted that it was in fact a sexually oriented industry and subject to the law. The reaction of Julie Norris, one of the owners 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 simply walk into it and you have to pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow donations. Have you ever had your buddies over for a booze and asked everyone to pitch in $10 or bring a dish? That is exactly what we do. The only condition to get into my house is that you 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 rule is a guise to harass their way of life 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 principles into my own dwelling and I have 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 ordinance banning sex clubs violates their seclusion 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 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 attorney, Edward Klein, 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 remained open while all the official backbiting has taken place… Only now the City of Duncanville broadened the decree meant to shut the club down by making the classification of a swinger club more general and add a local appeal process for couples clubs that the city orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the organizers of the Cherry Pit accountable of unlawfully operating a sexually oriented company.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be tolerated to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the authorities getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can not do heroin in the seclusion of your apartment. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to control the seeking an affair in Texas showing up at the club. 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 government control. There is a colossal distinction…
Nobody is going to advice you that you cant go down to your neighborhood red light district and get a BJ from Lily the local crack addict or Billy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of casadas buscando to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We of course know however that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the BJ makes the otherwise agreeable doing 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 whatsoever other nasty doing goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a compelling state 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 locked. While warnings for the owners stated that the conclusion would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.