Do We Have A Legitimate Right To A Orgy?
The town of Duncanville, Texas that is suburb of Dallas has been drawn in its own little Jerry Falwell style bible belt fight with the founders of a secluded ”adult party club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private mansion tucked in away in an upscale Duncanville residential area. The Cherry Pit advertises on the web and according to advertised reports invites as many as 160 members to a weekly gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing bi party where couples pay a charge for entrance and are allowed engage in almost any sort of sexualgroup sex activity 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 expence of foodstuff, drinks etc and not a fee for the privilege 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 a joke)
This whole bru ha ha happened latein November of 2007 when past several years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the crime, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the area, the City of Duncanville passed the next order:
“the function and maintenance of a club to be unlawful 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 meeting of “friends and family” looking for some enjoyment and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the ordinance. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I don’t comprehend what their classification of a industry is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can just walk into it and you must pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I accept contributions. 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 home is that a person 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 ordinance is a guise to attack 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 private home and I am going to stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The owners of the Cherry Pit then counter sued the city claiming the decree 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 method 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 legal advisor, Edward Klain, said the city tries to regulate private acts in a private dwelling using the public nuisance law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has remained open while all the legal squabbling has taken place… Only now the City of Duncanville broadened the rule meant to shut the club down by making the definition of a sex club more general and add a local petition process for couples clubs that the city orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the organizers of the Cherry Pit accountable of unlawfully operating a sexually oriented business.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the authorities getting its’ rocks off?
You evidently can not do heroin in the isolation of your home. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us as well keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT trying to control the TX swingers showing up at the venue. They are attempting to order the founders of the place 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 colossal dissimilarity…
Nobody is going to tell you that you can not go down to your neighborhood red light quarter and get a blowjob 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 of course are aware of however that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the blowjob makes the otherwise agreeable operation illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal operation of soliciting a prostitute on the other end no matter where it happens (in addition to whatever other wicked stuff goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a undeniable government concern 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 commerce. The Cherry Pit has since been shut down. While warnings for the owners declared that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.