New Orleans Association of Cemetery Tour Guides & Companies

01/15/2025

Over the holidays, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled it will not review the decision of the 4th Circuit. I have previously pointed out to both courts that the property law treaties, authored by Professor Yiannopoulos, the courts routinely follow in any other case fully supports our position that cemeteries are public places. As there is no point in asking the current SCOTUS for review, we are at the end of the line. Ironically, the Archdiocese is reacting to its shrinking social relevance by behaving like a private institution and suddenly saying that all the public places it helped provided for centuries to invite the public into its orbit are now private.

10/17/2024

This week we filed a request for the Louisiana Supreme Court to overrule the decision of the Fourth Circuit City of Appeal because it completely ignored Louisiana law created to protect the public from abuse by the wealthy and powerful.

11/09/2022

On Nov. 4, the New Orleans Association of Cemetery Tour Guides & Companies filed this opposition memo to the Defendants' (Archdiocese and Valentino companies) motion to dismiss our first appeal, which is set for oral argument the morning of Dec. 6.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A4ebf936f-8b8c-34fd-b916-7e4d0987fcb7

Today, the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeal (USCA5) declined to rule now on their motion to dismiss and granted our motion to consolidate our two appeals, which means both will be argued on Dec. 6. THIS IS OUR VERY FIRST VICTORY IN OVER A YEAR OF LITIGATION!

But just in case, our attorney, David W. Nance, is already applying now for admission to the bar of the US Supreme Court, in case we need to ask them to consider our case in the future.

Click or tap to view this file.

10/15/2022

Our second appellate brief to the USCA5 was filed today.

Anyone interested can use these links to download the first appellate brief, currently set for oral argument the week of December 5, 2022, and the brief filed today in our second appeal.

First Appeal Brief
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A403b2682-17dc-4d11-8443-8858c94ae170&viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover

Second Appeal Brief
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Aba003c97-d501-471f-812e-58d0b4e1cd0b&viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover

Click or tap to view this file.

09/06/2022

Oral argument on our first appeal has been tentatively reset from the week of November 7 to the week of December 5, possibly to allow time for briefing of our related second appeal. Early on in this litigation, we already anticipated needing to appeal. So this is our time to really focus the appellate court’s attention on the importance of enforcing the law by keeping cemeteries free and open to the public.

01/13/2022

Regarding the email that just went out to licensed tour guides:

The attorney for New Orleans Association of Cemetery Tour Guides & Companies is working on getting some more information from Latoya on what exactly the motivations behind these changes are... If you are already a member you should be receiving an email sometime today from the Association. Please respond with any questions or concerns you have for the mayor and GTB. You can also email [email protected] or respond to this post with any questions or concerns you would like voiced in Tuesday's virtual meeting.

This is a great opportunity to show the city that this association of tour guides isn't just a name... if you are a licensed New Orleans tour guide and not already a member please join so you can make your voice heard. freepubliccemeteries.org. Thank you.

01/01/2022

Have a wonderful 2022, y'all.

12/06/2021

Litigation moves very slowly in general. The next hearing in our case is currently set for early January.

We understand that a request for injunctive relief was filed today in a state court case regarding St. Louis No. 1 that includes the same cemetery law issue. So we'll update you here on that request once we know more.

There have been some questions about our federal court litigation. So we wanted to clarify that we are simply asking the court to enforce the law, which has been unchanged for over two centuries. The case can not be settled; the law is what it is. So we will continue until the final court ruling is issued.

Anyone with further questions can contact us at [email protected] or just text our attorney in the litigation at 504-450-3938.

11/28/2021

Hi everyone.

My name is Jordan. I'm the interim manager of ACTGC Nola. I wanted to remind everyone that the full and current litigation is available at freepubliccemeteries.org.

Our first goal has always been to file a lawsuit against the Archdiocese for free access to our public cemteries. There have been some legitimate questions about this and we want to hear you out. All of you that have signed up for our Association as members or friends have a say in this.

You can fill out the contact form online or reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Thanks, everyone.

Since 2015, New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries (NOCC) has unlawfully charged mandatory entry and tour fees at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, which is a religious public cemetery and free to the public for over 200 years. Now NOCC and Cemetery Tours NOLA LLC (CTN) plan to continue the unlawful fees at fixe...