Do We Have A Constitutional Right To A Swing Party?
The municipality of Duncanville, Tx that is suburb of Dallas has been drawn in its own small Jerry Falwell manner holy scripture belt fight with the owners of a secluded ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private dwelling tucked in away in an upscale Duncanville housing area. The Cherry Pit posts on the internet and according to announced news invites as many as 160 swingers to a weekly party.
The Cherry Pit has been holding swinging party where guests pay a charge for admission and could get involved in almost any kind of sexualgroup sex actions they want on the location. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the price of food, soft 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 whispered for an additional service fee they will even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)
This whole thing started backin November of 2006 when after some years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, noisy visitors and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the area, the City of Duncanville passed the subsequent decree:
“the operation and maintenance of a club to be illegal and a public irritation. Violation of the new decree will result 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 excitement and resoluted that it was in fact a sexually oriented business and subject to the decree. The respond of Julie Norris, one of the owners of “The Pit” was the following:
“I do not know what their meaning of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can simply walk into it and you should pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I accept gifts. Have you ever had your friends over for a booze and asked everyone to pitch in $5 or bring a bowl? That is precisely what we do. The only condition 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 regulation is a excuse to harass their lifestyles 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 ethics into my own 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 ordinance banning swingers clubs violates their solitude 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 basically 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 irritation law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has stayed open while all the official wrangling has taken place… Only now the City of Duncanville broadened the rule meant to shut the club down by making the explanation of a sex club more universal and add a local appeal process for swinger clubs that the town orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the founders of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegally operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be tolerated 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 as well keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT trying to order the Texas swingers showing up at the venue. They are attempting to regulate the owners of the club in encouraging 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 administration. There is a vast difference…
Nobody is going to advice you that you should not go down to your neighborhood red light quarter and get a BJ from Mollie the local crack addict or Jimmy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of parejas swinger to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We surely know however that the act of handing over a dollar in exchange for the blowjob makes the otherwise consenting act illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal act of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it occurs (in addition to whatever other wicked stuff goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a compelling government awareness 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 industry. The Cherry Pit has since been shut down. While advice for the owners stated that the conclusion would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.
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