Image of Alta, UT (Wikimedia Commons)
A lawsuit filed in January by four Utah snowboarders contends that Alta’s snowboard ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. On Friday, attorneys representing Alta Ski Area filed a motion asking a U.S. District Court judge to dismiss the lawsuit stating that the litigation “demeans the Constitution to suggest that the amendment that protected the interests of former slaves during Reconstruction and James Meredith and the Little Rock Nine must be expanded to protect the interests of those who engage in a particularized winter sport.” The motion goes on to say, “there is no authority holding that the zone of interest created by the Fourteenth Amendment protects those who stand sideways on snowboards.”
For more on this story we turn it over to firsttracksonline.com.
“Attorneys also argue that it is Alta’s right to decide what equipment is allowed on its slopes, both for business and safety reasons, pointing out that the ski area’s lease with the U.S. Forest Service is silent on that issue. They cite the “blind spot” created by a snowboarder’s stance and the lengthy traverses for which Alta is famous, indicating that maintaining those traverses can be difficult on a snowboard.
They did not directly address the lawsuit’s further contention that Alta’s business policy fosters animus between skiers and snowboarders, but they do point out that snowboarders “can hardly claim they represent the kind of politically unpopular community that the Constitution was designed to protect.”
It was not immediately known when the Court might act on Alta’s motion.” – firsttracksonline.com