Is There A Legal Right To A Orgy?
The municipality of Duncanville, Tx which is neighborhood of Dallas has been involved in its own small Jerry Falwell type holy scripture belt battle with the owners of a secluded ”adult party club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private residence tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville residential neighborhood. The Cherry Pit posts on the internet and according to advertised information invites as many as 100 swingers to a weekend social gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been organizing swinger sex where guests pay a cost for admission and are able get involved in mosly any type of sexualgroup sex deeds they want on the site. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance fee is to cover the expence of food, soft drinks etc and not a charge 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 charge they would even “bring out the gimp“….(just kidding)
This whole thing happened latein October of 2007 when past several years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, noisy visitors and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the area, the City of Duncanville approved the next order:
“the operation and maintenance of a sex to be illegal and a public irritation. Violation of the new ordinance can effect in a fine of up to $3,000.”
The city of Duncanville then decided that the parties at the Cherry Pit were more than simply a gathering of “friends and family” looking for some enjoyment and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented business and subject to the law. The answer of Julie Norris, one of the founders of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I do not comprehend what their meaning of a commerce is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can simply 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 booze and asked everyone to pitch in $5 or bring a dish? That is exactly what we do. The only requirement to get into my home is that anyone 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 attack their way of life and beliefs and that the regulation regulating the club violated their First Amendment Rights to Privacy.
“It boils down to people want to put their morality into my private dwelling and I will 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 order banning swingers clubs violates their confidentiality 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 representative, Ed Klein, said the city tries 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 official backbiting has taken place… Only today the City of Duncanville broadened the rule intended to lock the club down by making the definition of a sex club more common and add a local petition procedure for sex clubs that the city orders to close.
***October 29, 2008 A jury proclaimed the founders of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegally operating a sexually oriented company.
So what you do think? Should private citizens be tolerated to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the authorities getting its’ rocks off?
You evidently can not do heroin in the confidentiality of your house. 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 mature older swingers showing up at the house. They are attempting to control the owners of the home in allowing 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 management. There is a vast difference…
No one is going to tell you that you cant go down to your local red light area and get a blowjob from Mollie the local crack addict or Bobby the cross dressing pimp or even take any of sexo de parejas 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 BJ makes the otherwise consenting step 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 wicked doing goes with “the other end”). The state has decided that there is a compelling government concern 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 business. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While advice for the owners declared that the verdict would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.