Laborers' Union Local 872 v. City of Las Vegas

FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
MAR 16 2022
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
LABORERS’ INTERNATIONAL No. 21-15772
UNION NORTH AMERICA, LOCAL
872; THOMAS M. WHITE, AKA Tommy D.C. No.
M. White, 2:19-cv-00322-RFB-NJK
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
MEMORANDUM*
v.
CITY OF LAS VEGAS; et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Nevada
Richard F. Boulware II, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted March 14, 2022**
Las Vegas, Nevada
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
Before: KLEINFELD and BENNETT, Circuit Judges, and COGAN,*** District
Judge.
Laborers’ International Union North America, Local 872 (“Laborers’
Union”) and Thomas M. White appeal the district court’s dismissal of their claims
against Las Vegas and two former city councilmen for lack of standing. We have
jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.1
We review a district court’s determination on standing de novo and where
“standing is raised in connection with a motion to dismiss, the court is to accept as
true all material allegations of the complaint and construe the complaint in favor of
the complaining party.”2 The party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden
of establishing the elements of Article III standing.3 Article III standing “requires
that the plaintiff have a concrete and particularized injury fairly traceable to the
***
The Honorable Brian M. Cogan, United States District Judge for the
Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation.
1
Appellants have filed two motions to supplement the record. Dkt. Nos. 29,
31. Both motions are denied as moot.
2
Levine v. Vilsack, 587 F.3d 986, 991 (9th Cir. 2009) (cleaned up).
3
Meland v. WEBER, 2 F.4th 838, 843–44 (9th Cir. 2021).
2
challenged conduct that likely can be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.”4
Here, Laborers’ Union failed to establish that the alleged injury is fairly
traceable to appellees’ challenged conduct. The Project Labor Agreement expired
in 2010. According to the complaint, the landowners did not start submitting
applications to develop the property until 2015. Even if Las Vegas and councilmen
did unconstitutionally take the landowners’ property, there is no way to fairly trace
the failure to realize the profits of an agreement that expired years prior to that
unconstitutional taking. The district court was correct to dismiss for lack of
standing. AFFIRMED.
4
Inland Empire Waterkeeper v. Corona Clay Co., 17 F.4th 825, 831 (9th
Cir. 2021) (citing Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Env’t Servs. (TOC), Inc.,
528 U.S. 167, 180–81 (2000)).
3