Judge tosses Venetian civil rights suit against LVCVA

Wednesday, May 3, 2000 | 10:17 a.m.

A federal judge in Las Vegas dismissed a civil rights lawsuit filed by the Venetian hotel-casino against its competitor in the convention business, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro rejected the resort's claim that the LVCVA violated its First Amendment rights to free speech by threatening legal action against it.

The LVCVA board of directors in December authorized its legal staff to go to court to recover expenses resulting from the delay in construction of a 1.3 million-square-foot, $150 million expansion to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The expansion will compete against the Venetian's convention operations and its attached Sands Expo Center.

The LVCVA said delays created by a series of suits filed by the Venetian since June 1999 resulted in the project costing at least $10 million more than initially projected.

The Venetian filed two suits challenging the financing of the expansion and the civil rights claim. Also pending is a potential suit alleging construction would violate the federal Clean Air Act. An environmental group has threatened that suit, but the LVCVA believes Venetian management is behind the effort.

The expansion has since gone forward with ground broken in April. The LVCVA hopes the building is completed by late 2001, in time for the 2002 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January.

Pro's ruling said the threat of a counterclaim by the LVCVA was not enough to chill the Venetian's free-speech rights, as claimed in the resort's lawsuit.

"This court .. finds the alleged unconstitutional disincentive to speech and court access to be too speculative, under the facts as currently alleged, to support the assertion of federal jurisdiction," Pro's ruling said.

"The LVCVA has merely poised a 'threat of litigation' of 'significant legal repurcussions' if the Venetian does not desist in its attempts to prevent the convention center expansion," the ruling said. "Such allegations, at best, establish only speculative and arguably chimerical (fantastic) fears."

Luke Puschnig, the LVCVA's legal counsel, and David Friedman, an attorney with the Venetian, had not seen the ruling this morning and had no comment.