3rd Circuit - Franchise Fees - CATV While this case may seem jurisdiction specific to NJ, there could be interest nationwide. Two NJ municipalities sued Netflix and Hulu to collect franchise fees under the NJ Cable Act. Unfortunately, the court concluded that the local governments did not have standing as the act did not give them authority to enforce its provisions and that a state agency the Board of Public Utilities was the only entity with that authority. Would the law in your jurisdiction provide a different result? Borough of Longport vs. Netflix, https://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/222139p.pdf 8th Circuit - Odor Ordinance - Zoning - Equal Protection South Saint Paul saw changes in its industrial base and land uses over the years, from one heavily tilted to livestock handling and processing to different uses. Some of the livestock uses faded and failed while some remained. Among those that remained was a rendering business. In reimagining itself and its land use plan, the city considered the problem of foul odors from some of the previously important businesses negatively affecting the transition and the city sought to deal with this by passing a foul odor ordinance seeking to mitigate the foul odors and to limit through zoning the addition of similar uses. One of the long time industrial uses sued asserting the usual Equal Protection and the newer Retaliation claim. The court found for the city and as to the Retaliation claim said "the record reveals that Sanimax's unremitting odor problem, rather than its protected conduct, served as the impetus for the 2020 Odor Ordinance." The Court disposed of the Equal Protection challenges as well as a void for vagueness challenge and readers might want to take a look. Sanimax vs. South Saint Paul 231579P.pdf (uscourts.gov)<http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/24/03/231579P.pdf> 11th Circuit - Public Meetings - Arrest for Disruptive behavior - cyberstalking On January 10, the court issued an opinion involving the Town of Homestead Florida addressing the issues in the caption. This past week the circuit ordered the case for a rehearing en banc and vacated the earlier decision. McDonough vs Garcia 202211421.1.pdf (uscourts.gov)<https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202211421.1.pdf> End Note IMLA offers members many opportunities to stay up on the law and share ideas for how best to advise clients. The Kitchen Sink webcast is a great way to keep up on important legal issues. More importantly, IMLA's life's breath is its membership. Tell colleagues in your state to join, if you're a city get your county to join, if you're a county get your towns and cities to join or your neighboring cities and counties. I've been a part of IMLA first as a member since 1978 and as an employee since 2006. As my time with you ticks down, I urge each of you to help IMLA expand its membership as doing so helps keep costs down and expands the knowledge base. Go to www.imla.org<http://www.imla.org> for more information and if budget issues affect joining talk with one of our staff to see if we can help bring you on board through creative ideas. Charles W. Thompson, Jr. Of Counsel P: (202) 466-5424 x7110 M: (240) 876-6790 D: (202) 742-1016 [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> [logo]<https://imla.org/> 51 Monroe St. Suite 404 Rockville, MD, 20850 www.imla.org<http://www.imla.org/> Plan Ahead! Plan Ahead! See IMLA's upcoming events<https://imla.org/events/>, calls and programming. Check out our On-Demand webinar library<https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=imla&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Merchandise&productCat=Webinar> with 100+ webinars at your fingertips!