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Decision in Federal Case Against Louisville's Animal Ordinance Below are links to three different Adobe Acrobat PDF documents of Please help the Louisville Kennel Club fight for your right to own dogs! Litigation Update 8/27/2008 A Small Win is the Beginning Today Judge Simpson, the judge in our Federal Case, issued two orders. The first order granted our motion to amend our complaint to comply with the amended ordinance and to reemphasize our Fourth Amendment claim and our standing issue. This City had contested our motion to amend. In addition, the judge denied the motion of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS Adobe Acrobat PDF) to file an amicus curaie brief in our case stating that the HSUS did not have any special factual information and that the legal issues that HSUS wanted to raise could have been raised by the City. The City additionally supported the HSUS's motion. Litigation Update 2/26/2008 Judge MacDonald (Kentucky District Court) issued an opinion today in the Open Meetings Act lawsuit brought by the Louisville Kennel Club and the League of Kentucky Sportsmen ("PLAINTIFFS") to void the animal control ordinance passed on 12/19/06 due to violations of the Open Meetings Act. The Judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that the Council did indeed violate the Open Meetings Act ("OMA") and the Court "must therefore declare the animal control ordinance void. All subsequent ordinances that embody or amend Ordinance 233, Series 2006, must also be rendered void." While the April 2007 Amendment of the Animal Control Ordinance was specifically addressed in Judge McDonald's ruling, the December 2007 Amendments were not. At the time of the filing of the Summary Judgement motion in the Open Meetings case, the Decmeber 2007 Amendments had not even been drafted. Despite this very clear ruling, the city of Louisville has chosen to issue statements that the animal control ordinance passed in December 2007 is not affected. The Louisville Kennel Club and the League of Kentucky Sportsmen have filed a motion asking for clarification on that point, which will be heard on Monday, March 3, 2008. Meanwhile, in order to stay the Judge's ruling, the city has filed a motion for reconsideration. This motion could take til April to be completely resolved. Litigation Update 1/23/08 Our federal civil rights lawsuit against the city is moving forward. We filed our motion for summary judgment this week. The city will have an opportunity to respond. We expect their answer within the month. |