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Dimitri Adloff
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Latest from Otten Johnson Robinson Neff + Ragonetti PC

Denver’s ban on source-of-income discrimination took effect on January 1, 2019. The ordinance, which the Denver City Council approved back in August, prohibits a wide range of conduct in real estate transactions “based upon … source of income.”  Protected sources of income under the ordinance include government housing assistance, Social Security payments, veterans’ benefits, student loans, legal settlements, and court-ordered child support and alimony payments.  The income source must be both “lawful” and “verifiable”…
Fewer than six months after it was enacted as an “emergency” measure, a Cincinnati ordinance singling out billboards for special taxes has succumbed to a constitutional challenge. The ordinance, which met legal headwinds from the start, transparently aimed to make life miserable for the city’s billboard operators and consisted of two primary components: (1) a special tax on revenues from billboard advertising and (2) a hush provision preventing those operators from telling advertisers about the tax.  An…
Fortunately for those of us in the practice of First Amendment-related law, expressive conduct can be wildly entertaining.  And in Westford, Vermont, a local land use dispute has turned into a full-blown First Amendment fiasco. Apparently operating on the old premise of “I’m from Vermont, I do what I want,” Ted Pelkey, a resident of Westford, decided to pursue a creative approach to expressing his First Amendment rights by erecting a decorative, 16-foot-tall, 700-pound wooden…
Last month, a federal court ruled that New Jersey’s prohibition on “BYOB” advertising—that is, advertising by drinking and entertainment establishments allowing patrons to bring their own alcoholic beverages—violated the First Amendment.  As a result of the court’s ruling, Garden State restaurants will now be allowed to post advertisements encouraging their patrons to bring their own wine and beer. New Jersey law allowed patrons to bring wine or beer onto the premises of establishments that are…
Earlier this fall, a federal district court in California entered an order dismissing a challenge to election sign regulations promulgated by the City of Coalinga, California.  Coalinga had a sign regulation that prohibited the display of election signs more than 60 days prior to and more than seven days after an election.  June Vera Sanchez and the Dolores Huerta Foundation sought to display political messages outside of the election season, and challenged the regulation on…
In October of this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an operator of an adult entertainment convention called “Exxxotica” had standing to challenge the City of Dallas, Texas’s 2016 decision not to enter into a contract allowing the event. The appeals court’s decision reversed a prior ruling by the federal district court dismissing the case. In 2015, Three Expo Events, L.L.C., held the Exxxotica event at the Dallas Convention Center. The event,…
architecture
Earlier this year, after a telecom millionaire with a checkered past challenged the Town of Palm Beach, Florida’s architectural review ordinance on First Amendment grounds, a federal magistrate judge in Florida issued a report and recommendation finding that the house proposed by the applicant was not entitled to First Amendment protection.  The court then entered summary judgment in favor of the town. Donald Burns sought to construct a new, modern home in a neighborhood otherwise…
mural
In October, a federal district court in Louisiana denied the City of New Orleans’s motion to dismiss a claim filed by an individual challenging the city’s permit requirement for murals. In late 2017, Neal Morris, an owner of residential and commercial properties in New Orleans, sought information from the city about the permit process and approval criteria for placing murals on his properties.  When he did not receive the requested information, Morris commissioned an artist…
In a case that has been percolating for more than five years and which we reported on last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court order granting summary judgment in favor of King County, Washington, finding that the county’s bus advertising policy and rejection of a proposed advertisement violated the First Amendment.  The Ninth Circuit had previously affirmed the district court’s order denying a preliminary injunction to the plaintiff, American…
Last month, the federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit invalidated a Louisiana statute prohibiting nude erotic dancing by 18 to 21-year-old women, finding that the law was too vague and thus violated the First Amendment.  The law was passed by the Louisiana legislature in 2016, and applied to locations that serve alcoholic beverages in connection with nude dancing.  Erotic dancers were previously required to be at least 18 years of age, and state…