Is There A Lawful Right To A Orgy?
The city of Duncanville, Texas which is suburb of Dallas has been involved in its own little Jerry Falwell style bible belt combat with the owners of a secluded “adult club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private dwelling tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville residential district. The Cherry Pit posts on the web and according to announced information draws as many as 130 swingers to a weekly gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing swinger parties orgies where couples pay a fee for entry and could engage in pretty much any kind of sexualgroup sex deeds 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 snacks, beverages 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 said for an extra service fee they could even “bring out the gimp“….(just a joke)
This whole bru ha ha happened earlierin 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 district, the City of Duncanville approved the subsequent order:
“the operation and maintenance of a swinger to be unlawful and a public nuisance. Violation of the new regulation will effect in a fine of up to $2,000.”
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 enjoyment and resoluted that it was basically a sexually oriented commerce and subject to the decree. The reply of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I do not recognize what their definition of a commerce is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can just walk into it and you have to 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 everybody to pitch in $10 or bring a dish? That is just what we do. The only requirement to get into my home 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 regulation is a excuse to harass their lifestyles 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 own territory and I have 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 basically no right to personal privacy spelled out in the Constitution.
The Cherry Pit’s lawer, Ed Klain, said the city is trying 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 squabbling has taken place… Only now the City of Duncanville broadened the regulation designed to lock the club down by making the explanation of a adult club more broad and add a local plea procedure for sex clubs that the city orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the owners of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegitimately operating a sexually oriented industry.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the state getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can’t do drugs in the isolation of your home. These things are illegal regardless of where they are engaged in.
Let us also keep this in mind. Duncanville is NOT attempting to regulate the nude women Texas showing up at the club. They are trying to regulate the founders 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 government punishment. There is a vast distinction…
Nobody is going to tell you that you can not go down to your neighborhood red light quarter and get a blowjob from Kathie the local crack addict or Johnny the cross dressing pimp or even take any of parejas sexo to the Cherry Pit for some fun. We surely are aware of nonetheless that the act of handing over a dollar in exchange for the blowjob makes the otherwise agreeable 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 whatever other disgusting action goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a compelling government awareness to regulate 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 closed. While advise for the owners stated that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.
Tags: adult clubs, adult party, choice, community, constitutional rights, legal rights, orgy, parties, privacy, swingers, texas