Do We Have A Lawful Right To A Orgy?
The municipality of Duncanville, Texas that is neighborhood of Dallas has been involved in its own small Jerry Falwell manner bible belt clash with the founders of a secluded ”adult party club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private manor tucked in away in an expensive Duncanville housing neighborhood. The Cherry Pit posts on the internet and according to advertised information invites as many as 140 visitors to a weekly social gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been holding couples party sex where couples pay a fee for entrance and are allowed engage in pretty much any kind of sexualgroup sex actions they want on the site. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance price is to cover the price of snacks, soft drinks etc and not a charge 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 money they will even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
The entire bru ha ha happened backin October of 2007 when past several years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the community, the City of Duncanville approved the next order:
“the operation and maintenance of a sex to be against the law and a public annoyance. Violation of the new regulation will 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 simply a party of “friends and family” seeking some fun and determined that it was Really a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the regulation. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I don’t know what their definition of a industry is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can just walk into it and you must pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow contributions. Have you ever had your friends over for a barbecue and asked everyone to pitch in $5 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 went on to state that she assumed that the order is a guise to harass their way of life and values and that the decree regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their ethics into my private house and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The owners of the Cherry Pit afterward counter sued the city claiming the ordinance banning swingers 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 manner 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 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 legal wrangling has taken place… Just today the City of Duncanville broadened the decree designed to close the club down by making the classification of a adult club more broad and add a local plea procedure for swinger clubs that the city orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the owners of the Cherry Pit accountable of unlawfully operating a sexually oriented company.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the state getting its’ rocks off?
You evidently can’t do cocaine 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 order the swingers in Dallas, TX showing up at the club. They are trying to order the hosts 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 state punishment. There is a huge dissimilarity…
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 Jimmy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of parejas swingers 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 consenting doing 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 disgusting stuff goes with “the other end”). The government has decided that there is a forceful state interest 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 closed. While advise for the owners declared that the decree would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.