This case arises from a conflict between the State of California and Huntington Beach, a Charter City. Under the state constitution, Huntington Beach enjoys Home Rule powers with substantial independence from state control. Those Home Rule powers include local zoning and housing development. The State threatens to compel the City to adopt specific high-density housing mandates, which include a mandate to make public statements favorably endorsing the virtues of high-density housing as more important than the attendant environmental harms. The City objected to the State’s high-density housing mandates, including the requirement to make public statements endorsing high-density housing over environmental harms. The City’s Mayor and Councilmembers declined to support the policy and filed suit against state actors in their official capacities. The City argued that the mandates violated the First Amendment and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. But the district court dismissed the case on standing grounds. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal.
