MEDIA CONTACT: Melanie Krakauer, mkrakauer@libertyjusticecenter.org or (312) 607-4977

Today, the Liberty Justice Center and Goldwater Institute will return to court on behalf of Chicagoans who share their homes through online platforms, such as Airbnb.

The Liberty Justice Center and Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit, Mendez v. City of Chicago, in 2016, following Chicago’s enactment of a restrictive and invasive ordinance that limits the use of home-sharing platforms. In February 2017, the city of Chicago filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The nonprofit legal groups representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit will ask Cook County Circuit Court Judge Sanjay T. Tailor to allow their claims against the onerous regulations to continue.

“Chicago’s ordinance is full of unconstitutional provisions that violate homeowners’ rights. It prevents some homeowners from engaging in home-sharing at all and submits others to unreasonable searches and unfair rules and taxes. We’re hopeful that the court will allow our constitutional claims to go forward and then ultimately strike this ordinance down,” said Jacob Huebert, senior attorney at the Liberty Justice Center.

“The constitutional right of homeowners to offer their homes to guests – an essential component of property rights – ought to be fully respected,” said Christina Sandefur, executive vice president of the Goldwater Institute and one of the attorneys on the case. “This week’s oral argument provides an important opportunity to guarantee the right to home-sharing in the Windy City going forward.”

WHAT: Oral arguments on the city of Chicago’s motion to dismiss

WHO: Jacob Huebert, senior attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, and Christina Sandefur, executive vice president at the Goldwater Institute

WHEN: 10 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, June 20

WHERE: Cook County Circuit Court, Chancery Division, 50 W. Washington St., Courtroom 2008, Chicago, IL

BACKGROUND: In 2016, the Chicago City Council enacted an ordinance restricting home-sharing through platforms such as Airbnb. Among other things, the ordinance authorizes warrantless searches of home-sharers’ homes, prohibits rentals of certain homes if they are not the owner’s primary residence, limits the number of units in a building that can be registered on a home-sharing platform, imposes vague and discriminatory restrictions on guest noise, and imposes discriminatory taxes on home-sharing.

The Goldwater Institute joined with the Liberty Justice Center to file Mendez v. City of Chicago, a case challenging the constitutionality of the invasive restrictions. In response to the lawsuit, in February 2017, the Chicago City Council removed a requirement that home-sharers give up their guests’ personal information to city inspectors on demand.

But the removal of this requirement is not enough. The case will continue to challenge other unconstitutional aspects of Chicago’s home-sharing ordinance.

A ruling on the city of Chicago’s motion to dismiss could be delivered after oral arguments or on some other date in the near future.

The complaint from the lawsuit is available online at http://illin.is/airbnb.