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The municipality of Duncanville, Tx which is suburb of Dallas has been involved in its own petite Jerry Falwell style holy scripture strip battle with the founders of a privileged ”swinger couples club” named “The Cherry Pit“. The Cherry Pit is a private landed property tucked in away in an expensive Duncanville suburban district. The Cherry Pit publishes on the web and according to published reports draws as many as 130 members to a weekly gathering.

The Cherry Pit has been holding private adult parties where couples pay a cost for entrance and are allowed get involved in almost any sort of sex activity they want on the site. It is the position of the owners that this does not constitute a “business” as the entry price is to cover the cost of foodstuff, beverages etc and not a charge for the opportunity of engaging in sex from the tame to the “Pulp Fiction” apple in the mouth brand of entertainment…. It is rumored for an extra service charge they will even “bring out the gimp“….(just joking)

The whole bru ha ha started backin December 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 district, the City of Duncanville passed the next ordinance:

“the operation and maintenance of a club to be illegal and a public annoyance. Violation of the new regulation will outcome in a fine of up to $2,500.”

The city of Duncanville then decided that the gatherings at the Cherry Pit were more than just a party of “friends and family” looking for some excitement and determined that it was actually a sexually oriented business and subject to the law. The answer of Julie Norris, one of the owners of “The Pit” was the following:

“I don’t recognize what their definition of a business is, but to my understanding a business is public – anybody can simply walk into it and you should 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 $10 or bring a dish? That is exactly what we do. The only condition to get into my residence 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 rule is a excuse to attack their way of life and values and that the order 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 will 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 order banning swingers clubs violates their confidentiality 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 manner 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, Edward Kline, said the city is trying to regulate private acts in a private home 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 meant to close the club down by making the explanation of a swinger club more universal and add a local petition process for couples clubs that the city orders to close.

***October 29, 2008 A jury found the organizers of the Cherry Pit responsible 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 government getting its’ rocks off?

You evidently can not do drugs in the privacy of your apartment. 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 swinger personals in Texas showing up at the house. They are trying to regulate the hosts 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 control. There is a big distinction…

Nobody is going to tell you that you cant go down to your neighborhood red light block and get a blowjob from Kathie the local crack addict or Mikey the cross dressing pimp or even take any of hombres para parejas swinger 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 quickie makes the otherwise consenting action 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 stuff goes with “the other end”). The jury has decided that there is a forceful state concern 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 commerce. The Cherry Pit has since been locked. While counsel for the owners stated that the decree would be appealed and the statute challenged, it is vague if either of those was ever pursued.