Is There A Lawful Right To A Swing Party?
The municipality of Duncanville, Texas that is neighborhood of Dallas has been involved in its own petite Jerry Falwell type bible strip battle with the owners of a secluded ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private mansion tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville suburban neighborhood. The Cherry Pit advertises on the internet and according to advertised information invites as many as 100 guests to a weekend gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing swingers sex party where couples pay a cost for admission and are allowed engage in pretty much any sort 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 charge is to cover the price of snacks, drinks 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 charge they could even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
This whole deal happened latein December of 2007 when past few years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, traffic and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the neighborhood, the City of Duncanville passed the subsequent regulation:
“the operation and maintenance of a swinger to be illegal and a public annoyance. Violation of the new ordinance can effect in a fine of up to $2,000.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than just a gathering of “friends and family” seeking some excitement and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the regulation. The reaction of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I don’t recognize what their meaning of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can just walk into it and you shall pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow contributions. Have you ever had your friends over for a grill and asked everybody 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 went on to state that she assumed that the ordinance is a guise to attack their way of life and values and that the ordinance regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their principles into my personal dwelling and I am going 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 decree banning adult clubs violates their privacy 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 really no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s legal representative, Ed Kline, said the city is trying to regulate private acts in a private house using the public nuisance law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has remained open while all the legal wrangling has taken place… Only now the City of Duncanville broadened the regulation intended to close the club down by making the classification of a swinger club more broad and add a local petition procedure for adult clubs that the town orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the owners of the Cherry Pit responsible 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 government getting its’ rocks off?
You evidently can not do heroin 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 regulate the Texas married women looking for men showing up at the venue. They are attempting to control the hosts of the club in encouraging 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 huge difference…
No one is going to advice you that you cant go down to your local red light district and get a BJ from Sallie the local crack addict or Billy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of grupos swingers to the Cherry Pit for some entertainment. We surely know nonetheless that the act of handing over a dollar in exchange 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 wicked doing goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a undeniable 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 commerce. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While advice for the owners stated that the decree would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.
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