Lawsuit Sponsored by Anti-Porn Lobby Aims to Shut Down Las Vegas’ Sapphire Club

LAS VEGAS — Religiously motivated anti-porn and anti-sex work lobby NCOSE took credit last week for a Nevada lawsuit aiming to shut down one of Las Vegas’ leading strip clubs, Sapphire Las Vegas.

The lawsuit promoted by NCOSE (formerly known as Morality in Media) also targets an unrelated full-service sex work establishment, as the well-funded, Washington DC conservative group aims to challenge all legal sex work in the state on Nevada.

NCOSE bragged on an Aug. 31 statement about how their “lawsuit against Las Vegas strip club Sapphire (dubbed as the ‘world’s biggest gentleman’s club’) and Nevada brothel Chicken Ranch” had been allowed to proceed by the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada.

“In the lawsuit filed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center (NCOSE) and Jason Guinasso, an attorney with Hutchison & Steffen, PLLC,” the NCOSE statement read, “the plaintiffs, Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, are seeking to hold the defendants responsible for protecting the sex trade and enabling sex slavery, in violation of the 13th Amendment and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.”

NCOSE also explicitly indicated their expansive ambitious to outlaw all consensual sex work — one of their core coals — noting that “the lawsuit also asserts the rights of those who are currently being sex trafficked in Nevada, and because of this, are unable to protect their own rights.”

NCOSE’s senior legal counsel Christen Price Coerced stated her belief that “prostitution is rife in these legal entities, and under federal law it is sex trafficking.”

Conflating all legal sex work with “sex trafficking” is one of the key strategies of NCOSE, which has seen its operational budget blow up in the last three years, with a surge in tax-free donations.

NCOSE allege that plaintiff Jane Doe #2 “was sex trafficked in Nevada through legal strip clubs, including the Sapphire Gentleman’s Club.”

Originally NCOSE had also aimed to sue Steve Sisolak, Governor of Nevada; Aaron Ford, Attorney General of Nevada; the City of Las Vegas; and Nevada’s Clark County and Nye County, but the court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue them.

NCOSE and their legal associate in this clear instance of “lawfare” (using civil litigation to obtain a political goal) are appealing that ruling.