SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. Forest Service is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed over Alta ski resort’s ban on snowboarding.
In a filing in federal court and obtained by FOX 13, the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the land Alta Ski Area uses for its slopes, insisted that it has “sovereign immunity” and that snowboarders are not a protected class under the U.S. Constitution.
“Plaintiffs fail to provide any argument whatsoever refuting the fact that the United States’ plenary discretion over which activities it will allow on its land precludes a class-of-one equal protection claim,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah wrote.
Read the filing by the U.S. Forest Service here:
The group Wasatch Equality is suing Alta and the U.S. Forest Service over the ski resort’s snowboarding ban, arguing it violates their right to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. The group recently asked a judge to keep the lawsuit alive.
In its own filing last month, Alta argued that it did not discriminate against people — just equipment.
