Judge rules sex parties are not a form of protected speech

What’s the world coming to when you can’t even have a sex party in a hotel bar without the government getting all up in your business?

A federal judge threw out a former hotel owner’s lawsuit against a Connecticut town’s police force last week over a raid of the hotel during a swinger’s party. The gist of the judge’s ruling: a sex party is not a form of protected free speech under the First Amendment.

The Guardian reports the dismissal is just the latest exchange of broadsides in the fight between the town of Windsor Locks, Conn., and Sharok Jacobi, former owner of the Beverly Hills Suites.

Jacobi had several quarrels with the town over the years, including over expired liquor licenses at a Ludacris concert hosted at his hotel. But the event that spurred the lawsuit was a raid prompted by a rivalry between rival swingers clubs.

The Guardian reports a secret informant tipped Connecticut liquor control agents off to a swingers party being held at the hotel in 2007 by a group known as “Hot Couples.” The agents infiltrated the party and found all manner of indecent behavior happening right in the hotel bar. They called in a raid on the hotel, where Jacobi and several organizers were arrested.

Jacobi fought back with a lawsuit and leveled some pretty interesting allegations. He claimed the man who tipped off the liquor control agents was none other than the operator of the New England Swingers group. And if you know anything about the underground sex clubs of Connecticut, you know that the New England Swingers have a mad beef with Hot Couples, and vice versa.

Federal judge Michael Shea was unimpressed, throwing out all of Jacobi’s complaints. He quoted a ruling by Sandra Day O’Connor: “Any personal bonds that are formed from the use of a motel room for fewer than 10 hours are not those that have played a critical role in the culture and traditions of the Nation by cultivating and transmitting shared ideals and beliefs.”

It’s the most recent defeat on Jacobi, who has fallen on hard times. The Guardian reports his company filed for bankruptcy in 2012. He’s avoided several legal matters by staying in Israel, but he was convicted in absentia in a separate matter involving illegal apartments in Great Neck, N.Y.