Charleston Myrtle Beach, its police chief and Horry County have asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the NAACP alleging discrimination during a black biker rally held each year on South Carolina's Grand Strand.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued last month alleging discrimination during the Atlantic Beach Bikefest held each Memorial Day weekend.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the alleged behavior and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

But the defendants, in responses filed recently in federal court, maintain the civil rights group lacks standing to bring the lawsuit. They deny the major allegations in the lawsuit and ask to be reimbursed any legal fees spent defending the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Florence.

The suit was brought by the Conway branch of the civil rights group and 18 individuals.

It alleges bikers attending the predominantly black festival are discriminated against compared with those at the Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association Myrtle Beach Rally, a predominantly white biker rally the previous week.

It alleges police handled traffic control differently and city officials and the hospitality industry try to discourage black bikers from visiting out of "a fear that the festival would create an image that Myrtle Beach is a 'black beach' in the eyes of white tourists."

Both governments denied the allegation they use three times as many law officers during the black biker rally than during the rally the previous week.

The city also noted its policies and actions for handling law enforcement "were formulated and implemented with the advice and consent of representatives of the U.S. Justice Department, Civil Rights Division."

And it said Police Chief Warren Gall, also a defendant in the suit, "acted reasonably and in good faith" at the times mentioned in the complaint.

The city also said its sovereign immunity from a lawsuit is a complete defense and "the plaintiffs have brought this suit for ulterior purposes and motivations not appropriate for this action."

The county, in its response, said none of its policies or practices "has unlawfully injured, adversely affected or otherwise wrongfully harmed the NAACP, any of the other plaintiffs or any member of the NAACP."

The response also denied the county "has adopted or implemented any unlawfully discriminatory practices or policies."

No court date had been scheduled as of Wednesday.