StevieA federal court in Nevada recently dismissed a church’s claim that a music festival in “Sin City” Las Vegas featuring the likes of Stevie Wonder, Duran Duran, and Twenty One Pilots burdened its religious exercise.  According to the church, the three-day art, music, culinary and learning festival known as “Life is Beautiful” results in large crowds, road closings and concert noise that interfere with its ability to hold weekend worship services.  The festival covers 11 city blocks, attracts thousands of people, and showcases 70 musical acts on 4 stages.  The church, Amistad Christiana Church, sued the City of Las Vegas and Life is Beautiful, LLC to bar the music festival or, in the alternative, for the defendants to put in place “mature noise buffers” or come up with some other method to prevent the music from the stages from drowning out the church’s services.

The Court dismissed the church’s § 1983 claim against the City because the City took no action to prohibit, regulate, or coerce the church’s religious beliefs or practices.  It merely issued a permit for a music festival.  The church’s freedom of speech claim failed because “[t]he record reflects no indication that the City’s action was motivated by the City’s disdain of [the church’s] religious orientation … or by the message to be communicated to the students/parishioners at the Property.”  These same claims failed against the LLC because a § 1983 claim can be brought only against a state actor.

Lastly, the Court dismissed the church’s state law nuisance claims since the musical festival is only a temporary event in a location frequently used for festivals.  Further, the nuisance claim was premised largely on the alleged constitutional violations.  However, the Court noted that there may be other ways in which the church could establish a nuisance and dismissed the claim without prejudice, but noted that any such claim must be brought in state court.

The decision in Amistad Christiana Church v. Life is Beautiful, LLC (Dist. Nevada 2015) is available here.

Original Photography by Louis Fernando Reis (Some Rights Reserved)

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Photo of Evan Seeman Evan Seeman

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of…

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of an amicus curiae brief at the petition stage before the United States Supreme Court in a RLUIPA case entitled City of San Leandro v. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Evan serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the APA’s Planning & Law Division. He also serves as the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, and is the former Co-Chair of its Municipal Law Section. He has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star in the area of Land Use Law for 2013 and 2014. He received his B.A. in political science and Russian studies (with honors) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was selected as the President’s Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature. Evan received his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served on the Connecticut Law Review. While in law school, he interned with the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General in the environmental department, and served as a judicial intern for the judges of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Following law school, Evan clerked for the Honorable F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court.

Photo of John Peloso John Peloso

John Peloso, a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Litigation Group, is a trial lawyer who represents companies, municipalities, and individuals in a wide range of matters. At the administrative, trial, and appellate levels, John counsels clients and litigates real property disputes, including…

John Peloso, a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Litigation Group, is a trial lawyer who represents companies, municipalities, and individuals in a wide range of matters. At the administrative, trial, and appellate levels, John counsels clients and litigates real property disputes, including real estate, land use, environmental, and tax matters, including RLUIPA and eminent domain matters.

In the area of real estate litigation, John represents institutional, municipal, and individual clients in disputes involving title, zoning, wetlands, land use, RLUIPA, eminent domain, and other real property rights. He also represents clients in all aspects of commercial lease and other real estate transactional disputes. In the area of real property tax litigation, he represents institutional and individual clients in proceedings at the regulatory, administrative, and trial levels. In this regard, he has dealt with specialized issues involving among other things, the valuation of high-tech software, wireless communications equipment, contingency fee tax audits, special use properties, and the impact of environmental conditions on the valuation of real property.

Prior to joining Robinson+Cole, John was a member of the litigation department at White & Case LLP in New York City, where he concentrated his practice in complex commercial, property and securities litigation.