Hurdles cleared for proposed $235 million Slidell casino. Voters will decide its fate.

The Dec. 11 vote that will decide the fate of a proposed Slidell-area casino will move forward without legal impediment after the state Supreme Court on Monday reversed an appeal court’s decision that could have scuttled the election.

The state Supreme Court, which last week issued a stay on all legal action surrounding the casino referendum, has decided that any legal questions of the constitutionality of the vote will be decided after the election if St. Tammany voters allow Peninsula Pacific Entertainment to build a $325 million casino and hotel called Camellia Bay at the foot of the Interstate 10 twin spans near Slidell.

The Supreme Court’s ruling — which comes day after the start of early voting — upholds Judge John Keller’s October ruling in the 22nd Judicial Court in St. Tammany Parish that a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the election, filed by Covington attorney Charles Branton and Slidell pastor John Raymond, was premature and that the plaintiffs failed to show they would suffer irreparable harm if the election was held as scheduled.

The state First Circuit Court of Appeal reversed Keller’s ruling earlier this month, saying that a trial on the merits should be held prior to the election. In response, the St. Tammany Parish government, which put the referendum on the ballot, asked the Supreme Court to toss the First Circuit ruling, which it did on Monday.

St. Tammany voters are being asked if they want to allow Peninsula Pacific to build a casino at a specific site in the Slidell area. The approval is needed because parish voters in 1996 turned thumbs-down on casino gambling and video poker. The casino referendum is the lone item on the parish’s ballot Dec. 11.

Editor’s note: For more on this story, visit the New Orleans Advocate’s website.