Is There A Lawful Right To A Orgy?
The city of Duncanville, Texas which is neighborhood of Dallas has been drawn in its own little Jerry Falwell type bible strip combat with the founders of a private ”adult party club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private residence tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville suburban region. The Cherry Pit posts on the web and according to announced reports draws as many as 130 members to a weekly gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been holding sex orgy swinger party where visitors pay a charge for entrance and could engage in mosly any sort of sexualgroup sex activity they want on the premises. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the price of foodstuff, 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 additional service money they could even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
This whole deal happened backin November of 2006 when after few years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, noisy visitors and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the community, the City of Duncanville passed the following order:
“the function and maintenance of a adult to be against the law and a public irritation. Violation of the new order can outcome in a fine of up to $3,000.”
The city of Duncanville then decided that the events at the Cherry Pit were more than just a meeting of “friends and family” looking for some fun and determined that it was in fact a sexually oriented business and subject to the law. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the owners of “The Pit” was the following:
“I do not comprehend what their definition of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can just 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 grill and asked everyone to pitch in $5 or bring a dish? That is just 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 believed that the rule is a guise to harass their way of life and beliefs 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 private dwelling and I have 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 sex clubs violates their solitude 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 scheme 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 attorney, Edward Klein, 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 stayed open while all the legal wrangling has taken place… Only today the City of Duncanville broadened the regulation designed to lock the club down by making the definition of a sex club more general and add a local plea procedure for sex clubs that the town orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the owners of the Cherry Pit responsible of illegally operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the state getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can’t do heroin in the privacy of your dwelling. 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 TX showing up at the place. They are attempting to order the owners of the club in allowing 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 punishment. There is a huge distinction…
Nobody is going to advice you that you should not go down to your local red light block and get a blowjob from Mollie the local crack addict or Jimmy the cross dressing pimp or even take any of sexo de parejas to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We of course are aware of nonetheless 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 whatsoever other nasty doing goes with “the other end”). The state has decided that there is a forceful government 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 company. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While warnings for the owners stated that the decree would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is uncertain if either of those was ever pursued.