City of New Orleans

Hignell-Stark v. City of New Orleans returns to the seemingly evergreen topic of short-term rental regulation by the City of New Orleans. These are some of the holdings reached:

• Equal Protection. The Fifth Circuit struck down the City’s categorical ban on business entities holding owner or operator permits. Because natural‑person owners and juridical‑person owners are similarly situated for purposes of STR permitting, the City’s prohibition on business‑held licenses could survive only if it bore a rational relationship to a legitimate governmental interest. The court found none. The City’s livability and neighborhood‑character concerns relate to guest conduct and on‑site oversight, not the legal identity of the permittee.And the Court disagreed that corporate form would impede enforcement or increase administrative burdens, noting that the Code already limits concentration through one‑permit‑per‑block and one‑permit‑per‑person rules.
• First Amendment. The Court distinguished between permissible disclosure requirements and impermissible content restriction. It upheld requirements that STR ads include factual, uncontroversial information such as permit numbers, accessibility details, and bedroom/occupancy counts, as well as prohibitions on advertising unpermitted or over‑capacity rentals. By contrast, the rule that “each short‑term rental listing advertises only one dwelling unit” failed, because the City did not say how the “one‑unit‑per‑ad” limitation directly advances a substantial interest or why it is no more extensive than necessary, and the Curt declined to supply post hoc justifications.

No. 24-30160; Oct. 7, 2025