Do You Have A Constitutional Right To A Orgy?
The city of Duncanville, Tx which is outscirts of Dallas has been involved in its own small Jerry Falwell type bible strip fight with the owners of a privileged “adult club” called “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private estate tucked in away in an fashionable Duncanville residential neighborhood. The Cherry Pit advertises on the internet and according to announced news invites as many as 100 visitors to a weekly gathering.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing private orgy parties where couples pay a fee for admission and can engage in pretty much any kind of sex actions they want on the premises. It is the position of the hosts that this does not constitute a “business” as the entrance price is to cover the cost of foodstuff, 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 rumored for an additional service money they will even “bring out the gimp“….(just a joke)
This whole bru ha ha started earlierin October of 2006 when past few years of Cherry Pitt neighbors complaining about the offence, parties and “unsavory element” “the pit” was bringing to the neighborhood, the City of Duncanville approved the following regulation:
“the function and maintenance of a adult to be illegal and a public annoyance. Violation of the new regulation will effect in a fine of up to $3,000.”
The city of Duncanville after that decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than simply a meeting of “friends and family” looking for some excitement and resoluted that it was Really a sexually oriented business and subject to the decree. The reaction of Julie Norris, one of the owners of “The Pit” was as follows:
“I don’t recognize what their meaning of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anyone can simply walk into it and you shall pay to get in and we are none of that,” Norris said. “I allow donations. Have you ever had your friends over for a barbecue and asked everyone to pitch in $10 or bring a plate? That is precisely what we do. The only requirement 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 went on to state that she understood that the ordinance is a excuse to attack their way of life and beliefs 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 territory and I will stand against that,” Norris said. “That is not what the Constitution allows.”
The founders of the Cherry Pit after that counter sued the city claiming the order banning adult clubs violates their seclusion 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 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 is trying to regulate private acts in a private home using the public irritation law as a “pretext” to do so….
The Cherry Pitt has remained open while all the official squabbling has taken place… Just today the City of Duncanville broadened the rule intended to close the club down by making the definition of a swinger club more broad and add a local appeal procedure for adult clubs that the town orders to shut down.
***October 29, 2008 A jury found the founders of the Cherry Pit guilty of illegitimately operating a sexually oriented company.
So what do you think? Should private citizens be allowed to “swap pits” at the Pitt without the authorities getting its’ rocks off?
You obviously can not do drugs 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 trying to regulate the TX adult dating showing up at the venue. They are attempting to order the owners of the club in cheering 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 management. There is a big distinction…
Nobody is going to tell you that you cant go down to your local red light area and get a BJ from Mollie the local crack addict or Bobby the cross dressing pimp or even take any of parejas swinger to the Cherry Pit for some entertainment. We of course are aware of nonetheless that the act of handing over a dollar in trade for the blowjob makes the otherwise consenting action illegal prostitution on one end and the illegal operation 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 jury has decided that there is a forceful 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 advice for the owners declared that the conclusion would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is unclear if either of those was ever pursued.