# Swingers Clubs Ruled Legal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swingers-clubs-ruled-legal/336730>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 22, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swingers-clubs-ruled-legal/336730 "2005-12-22T02:52:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swingers-clubs-ruled-legal/336730/41 "2005-12-26T15:33:22Z")

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> [@John Carter of Mars](#):
>
> Sorry I wasn’t clear. You do cite some circumstances where such clubs were harassed, and some local laws.
> 
> However, I still don’t see where swingclubs are the target of some national law that needs repealing, or that swing clubs in general are in need of a protective national law such as Roe v. Wade.

I don’t disagree. The right to privacy probably doesn’t help all that much.

> [@](#):
>
> I think people posting that the US needs to Get A Clue in order to catch up with Canada in regard to swingclubs don’t have much to stand on. U.S. law doesn’t seem to even acknowledge that swingclubs exist, let alone persecute them.

Not federal law, no. Although, without checking, I’d wager that federal law includes some similar prohibitions for land under federal jurisdiction. Ah, what the heck, I peeked. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc\_sec\_18\_00001384----000-.html](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001384----000-.html) (strangely located adjacent to the posse comitatus statute). Also, there’s the Mann Act:

> [@](#):
>
> Whoever knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, with intent that such individual engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc\_sec\_18\_00002421----000-.html](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002421----000-.html)

So to the extent that swinging is illegal in a state, taking somebody to a club (especially if the club is across state lines) could be a federal crime.

And the Phoenix [Ordinance](http://www.moralityinmedia.org/nolc/caseStudies/swingersPack.pdf) (pdf) was drafted with swing clubs in mind.

Generally, though, you are correct. Most US swing clubs exist with little fear of persecution.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swingers-clubs-ruled-legal/336730/42 "2006-01-06T00:08:37Z")

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> [@Muffin](#):
>
> If it ever made its way up to the Supreme Court of Canada (which often happens when a law is found unconstitutional in one province but constitutional in another province), then even if the SCC found it to be unconstitutional, there still would be nothing forcing Parliament to remove it from the books.

Best example of that is [section 287 of the Criminal Code](http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46/42801.html#section-287), which criminalised abortion without the permission of a therapeutic abortion committee. It was struck down in 1988 by the Supreme Court, leaving abortion completely de-criminalized in Canada, but the offence is still in the _Criminal Code_.

Heck, they even carried it forward into the new Revised Statutes which came out in 1988 after the Morgentaler decision, re-numbered from s. 252, the version that was struck down.

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