December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 33

The federal district court, therefore, denied the Defendant
Town's motion to dismiss Plaintiff's claim
based upon an alleged violation of the First Amendment
right to the free exercise of religion.
Case Moot?
Since the 2022 application was ultimately approved,
Defendant had argued Plaintiff's claims were moot
and the lawsuit should be dismissed because the underlying
controversy had been effectively resolved.
As described by the federal district court, a " case becomes
moot " under the U.S. Constitution " when the issues
presented are no longer live or the parties lack a legally cognizable
interest in the outcome. " The court, however, noted
" a defendant's voluntary cessation of allegedly illegal conduct
is generally not enough to render a case moot " :
Otherwise, a defendant could engage in unlawful conduct,
stop when sued to have the case declared moot, then
pick up where he left off, repeating this cycle until he
achieves all his unlawful ends.
Accordingly, the federal district court would find this
case to be moot and dismiss Plaintiff's lawsuit courts
only " after a defendant voluntarily discontinues challenged
conduct " under the following circumstances:
(1) it can be said with assurance that there is no reasonable
expectation that the alleged violation will recur
and (2) interim relief or events have completely and irrevocably
eradicated the effects of the alleged violation.
In this particular case, the federal district court found
Defendant had failed to show that it was " absolutely
clear the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably
be expected to recur. " Moreover, the federal
district court would " view voluntary cessation of
challenged conduct with particular skepticism where
it appears to track the development of the litigation "
pursued by Plaintiff:
After denying the Plaintiff's applications for a Special
Event Permit for two years, the Commission voted to approve
the Plaintiff's application for the first time seven
days after the Plaintiff filed suit. Of note, several of the
Commissioner's referred to the lawsuit during the discussion
that preceded the vote approving the Plaintiff's application.
Most notably, one of the Commissioners stated...
" It's upsetting that, because you didn't like the outcome,
and it's clear to me that you're not following the rules, you
brought a lawsuit into the mix to get your way. "
In the opinion of the court, approval of Plaintiff's application
in 2022 was, therefore, insufficient to assure that
the alleged practice of denying the Plaintiff's applications
for constitutionally impermissible reasons would not recur
in the future. In particular, the court noted the Defendant
continued to " defend the legality of their actions "
and, moreover, it was " not clear why they would necessarily
refrain from resuming these actions in the future. "
As a result, the federal district court held Plaintiff's
claims were " not moot " and denied the motion to dismiss
the lawsuit.
Conclusion
The federal district court, therefore, denied Defendant's
motion to dismiss Plaintiff's lawsuit and ordered
this case to proceed for further trial proceedings to fully
consider Plaintiff's First Amendment claims against
the Defendant Town of Fairfield.
James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D., is an Attorney and Emeritus Associate Professor in
the School of Sport, Recreation and Tourism Management at George Mason University
(jkozlows@gmu.edu). Law review articles archive (1982 to present): mason.gmu.
edu/~jkozlows/lawarts/artlist.htm.
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