Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Source: neworleans.com.

This week, a federal district court denied the City of New Orleans’s motion to dismiss a First Amendment claim challenging the application of the city’s short-term rental law.

Plaintiff Dawn Adams Wheelahan challenged the city’s short-term rental regulations on a variety of grounds.  The city had revoked her license to rent her property on a short-term basis, in part for failing to display her license on the property or in her advertising of the property for short-term rental.  Wheelahan brought several claims against the city, including a Fifth Amendment takings claim, an Eighth Amendment excessive fines claim, and other constitutional claims.  Included in the complaint were claims of an unconstitutional prior restraint and content-based restrictions under the First Amendment.  The plaintiff argued, in essence, that the city’s permitting requirement and other restrictions on short-term rentals operated as a prior restraint on her advertising of the short-term rental, and that the requirement that she include her license in advertising was content based, compelled speech.
Continue Reading Court Denies New Orleans’s Motion to Dismiss First Amendment Claim Against Short-Term Rental Ordinance

An apartment advertised for short-term rental. Source: Creative Commons.

Last month, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction in a case initiated by HomeAway and Airbnb challenging the City of Santa Monica, California’s short-term rental regulations.  The plaintiffs in the case alleged violations of the First Amendment right to freedom of association.

Located on the Pacific coast and known as a tourist destination, by early 2018, Santa Monica had nearly 2,000 Airbnb or HomeAway listings—in a city of just 90,000 residents.  In response to the various problems created by short-term rentals, the city council passed an ordinance limiting short-term rentals to only “home-shares,” where the resident of the unit is present during the rental period.  Santa Monica also collects taxes on short-term rentals, requires licenses, and imposes disclosure obligations on hosts.  HomeAway and Airbnb filed a variety of challenges to the ordinance, and moved for a preliminary injunction, which was denied by the district court.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Affirms Denial of Preliminary Injunction in Santa Monica Short-Term Rental Case