ACLU Sues Fremont St. for Age Restrictions, Citing 1st Amendment Violation and Bogus ‘Festivus’ Justification

The American Civil Liberties Union of Battle Born State (ACLU) is suing the City of Las Vegas and the Fremont Street Experience (FSE), on behalf of a Las Vegas street performer and deuce 18-year-olds. It claims that eld restrictions to go in the tourist attraction, inwards come in since July 12 on weekend nights, go against the First Amendment.

Since the City sanctioned a special let allowing the FSE to impose restrictions, no one younger than 21 has been able-bodied to get into the pop downtown footer mall without a parent or guardian after 8 p.m. Fridays through and through Sundays. In addition, street performers are prohibited during those times. The special let is good until Nov. 28.

According to the lawsuit, the FSE earthbound mall is a “traditional public forum” where First Amendment rights fully apply. These include the rights to solicitation, expressive activity and performing arts. These rights cannot follow restricted or regulated, the suit says.

The case also attacks Chapter 11.68 of the Las Vegas Municipal Code, enacted inward 1995, which authorizes the FSE to vary the locations where people can buoy perform, closed pull down the intact earthbound mall to the superior general public, and sue those they say violated the regulations. This over-regulation of street performers, the plaintiffs argue, favors commercial-grade voice communication o'er artistic and political speech, which violates the First Amendment.

Final Aired Grievance a Doozy

Finally, the causa argues that the ground provided by the FSE for its unconstitutional special let was fraudulent. The application sanctioned past the metropolis in reality show “Festivus.” Avid Seinfeld fans will realize that as a wintertime holiday made up by Jerry Stiller’s part on a 1997 episode. And, as the ACLU cause notes, not formerly was Festivus advertised in any media or marketing materials, or an any physical signalise on John C. Fremont Street.

The plaintiffs seek an tell voiding portions of the LVMC Chapter 11.68, as swell as all actions taken past the city and FSE for violating the First Amendment. They also seek costs and attorney’s fees.

Real Reason for Restrictions

It wasn’t Festivus but an uptick in wild crime inward the surface area that led the FSE and Las Vegas to impose its restrictions.

On June 19, 2022, a 16-year-old boy allegedly fatally pellet unity man and wounded another mortal below the electronic canopy. Then, on July 4, quartet days before the security measures measures were enacted, another adult male was shooter in the buttocks. Last Aug. 4, a 30-year-old piece was killed during what began as a defend betwixt deuce men nigh an entertainment present at John Charles Fremont and 3rd streets.

Police data confirms that violent criminal offence at the attractive feature and on nearby streets was rising before the measures went into effect, with 45 aggravated assaults reported past ahead of time July 2022, compared with only when 27 the year before.

Public or Private?

The new cause comes shoot down to whether the FSE tin can live considered a public or private area. Though the FSE has non publically commented on the young lawsuit, it has repeatedly said inwards the past tense that its blank space is a buck private mall, non a public forum.

However, inwards a landmark 2003 case, the Ninth Circuit Margaret Court of Appeals disagreed.

“It may not look same a public street because of how the metropolis and John C. Fremont Street Experience treat it, but it’s a public street,” St. Christopher Peterson, the effectual manager of the ACLU of Nevada, told KSNV-TV lastly month. “And because it’s a public street, it’s where our First Amendment rights are strongest.”