Filed

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed a lawsuit against Fremont Street Experience, LLC, and the city of Las Vegas in order to protect First Amendments rights on this important public forum. Fremont Street remains a public street.

The case is Gordon v. City of Las Vegas, Case No. 2:22-cv-01446-RFB-EJY.

The ACLU of Nevada has been pushing back against policies that favor the speech of Fremont Street Experience while placing unconstitutional limits on the speech of all others. Most recently, Fremont Street Experience and the city of Las Vegas have gone to extremes in undercutting First Amendment protections by restricting adults aged 18 to 21 from entering the public forum via a special permit for an unadvertised and fictitious event created solely to create “an illusion of a valid time, place, and manner restriction, despite the fact that this curfew flies in the face of the Constitution and doesn’t satisfy any level of scrutiny,” according to the complaint. The ACLUNV is not challenging the existing curfew in the city of Las Vegas for people under 18.

The organization’s clients in the case include a street performer and two 18-year-olds who have had their First Amendment rights violated by Fremont Street Experience and the city of Las Vegas. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed this case on behalf of eleven individuals whose constitutional rights were violated by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Rio Hotel.

On August 19, 2018, our plaintiffs were having a birthday celebration at the Rio Hotel. Each of the 34 guests in attendance that evening is Black. LVMPD, aided by Rio staff, stormed in with no warrant and no reason to believe that any crime was being committed. Despite having no reasonable suspicion, LVMPD officers handcuffed and searched every single guest in attendance. Each guest was made to sit in the hallway of the Rio handcuffed with no access to food, water, or restroom facilities for up to 6 hours. LVMPD alleged that the birthday party was a “gang party,” but no guest was arrested for any criminal gang activity.

We’re suing to end LVMPD’s racially discriminatory practice of indiscriminately and unlawfully detaining and searching individuals in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada Foundation filed this case to secure the release of two men who are being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Henderson Detention Center.

Our plaintiffs are medically vulnerable and at risk of severe illness or even death because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Constitution requires that detention facilities ensure the health and safety of the people in their care, but these facilities are unable to implement social distancing and other medical best practices to prevent exposure.

The people housed at the Henderson Detention Center have already been exposed to COVID-19. Jail officials confirmed on March 28 that 13 individuals held in ICE detention there have been isolated in individual cells after they were transported by an ICE agent who later began to show symptoms of COVID-19.

The only remedy to this constitutional issue is to release our plaintiffs.