LAS VEGAS (AP) – The owner of a Las Vegas hotel who was fined a year ago for defying restrictions on the state coronavirus pandemic and hosting a beauty pageant and faith-based rally by Donald Trump, has lost a judicial challenge to the governor’s policies covering meeting sizes restrictions.
Attorney General Aaron Ford said Friday’s ruling against the Ahern Hotel and Convention Center was in line with a court finding that emergency orders issued by Governor Steve Sisolak after the COVID-19 surfaced in March 2020 balance the rights and safety of citizens.
“Today the court recognized what we already knew – the state has a responsibility to protect the lives of Nevada residents,” said Ford.
Attorney Sigal Chattah, who represents the hotel of construction machinery mogul Don Ahern, traveled on Friday and was not available for an immediate comment on whether to appeal.
In an oral judgment, Clark County District Court Judge Nancy Allf ruled that the August 2020 lawsuit was disputed because the state no longer imposed occupancy restrictions, Ford said. The city of Las Vegas and its chief planning officer were also named as defendants.
Ahern acquired the hotel in 2019 after it opened as Lucky Dragon in 2016 and quickly closed.
The property, which does business as 300 West Sahara LLC, was fined nearly $ 11,000 after holding an Evangelicals for Trump event that attracted more than 1,100 attendees from a city official – far more than that 50-person limit, which Sisolak has placed for public and private purposes, events at that time.
The organizers of the Mrs. Nevada America pageant days later held spectators out to comply with the crowd restrictions.
The lawsuit stated that there was no rational basis for treating a hotel or convention center differently from restaurants and casinos, which were allowed to operate at 50% occupancy at the time.
