Equal Protection

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Black Earth Meat Market, LLC et al v. Village of Black Earth, et al

Case No.: 15-3818

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Equal Protection

Appellant fails to adhere to reasonable care of its slaughterhouse facilities and cause of nuisances within town – ultimately leading to closure of facility

“As a result, although the Village pursued a campaign against continued slaughter activities by BEM at its current location, it had a rational basis for doing so. See Geinosky v. City of Chicago, 675 F.3d 743, 747 (7th Cir. 2012) (class‐of‐one equal protection claim requires that state actor has no rational basis for singling out plaintiff). It was BEM’s burden “to eliminate any reasonably conceivable state of facts that could pro‐ vide a rational basis for the classification.” D.B. ex rel. Kurtis B. v. Kopp, 725 F.3d 681, 686 (7th Cir. 2013) (citations omitted). It has failed to do so.   Lastly, BEM has not suggested a sufficiently similar comparator. It needed to find someone (or something) that shared with it all the principal, pertinent characteristics. Swanson, 719 F.3d at 784. BEM offers David W. Heiney’s, a restaurant and bar, but Heiney’s does not fit the bill. The tavern was not responsible for livestock noise, foul odors, improper storage of animal parts, and offal runoff, blood, and animal waste in the streets (let alone half‐ton, horned desperadoes). There is no evidence that the Village received complaints from neighbors of Heiney’s in any way similar to those it received about BEM. That provides an independent reason to reject the equal protection theory.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.