US District Court Judge William Pauley III has decided that the protest groups who applied to use Central Park for a rally while the Republican National Convention is in town August 29-September 2, 2004 cannot use the park. What does this mean, nothing? Or, is there a violation of civil rights laws going on?

Judge Lets City Bar Convention Protest on Park's Great Lawn
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and DIANE CARDWELL, NY TIMES, August 23, 2004

A federal judge ruled today that two groups of protesters cannot use Central Park's Great Lawn for a demonstration related to the Republican National Convention in New York City that starts next week.

The groups, the National Council of Arab Americans and the coalition Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, or Answer, had sought an injunction directing the New York City Parks Department to grant them a permit to use the Great Lawn for a demonstration of 75,000 people on Saturday, before the start of the convention on Monday.

In denying the request by the National Council of Arab Americans and the Answer Coalition, the judge, William H. Pauley III of United States District Court in Manhattan, cited security concerns and a long delay in filing the lawsuit and rejected the argument that the city had violated the Constitution in denying the permit application for 75,000 people to rally.

In his ruling, he also noted that the case highlights the intersection of the public interest to peacefully assemble and the preservation of a "unique pastoral oasis amid a towering urban setting."

The decision followed a frantic round of weekend negotiations between the city and protest organizers, and the judge said that he believed that the two sides could still bridge their differences and fashion a revised permit. Neither side had any immediate comment on the court's decision.

The Great Lawn is a fenced-off, grassy expanse of fields with baseball diamonds and open spaces used by New Yorkers to sunbathe, play games, picnic and gather in the city's landmark park for the occasional concert.

The Parks Department had received 30 applications for special rallies or demonstrations during convention week, when Republicans will gather through Sept. 2 at Madison Square Garden to announce the formal nomination of George W. Bush for a second term as president.

The National Council of Arab Americans had sought permission to use the Great Lawn, or another area known as the Sheep Meadow, for a demonstration on Aug. 28, the ruling said, but the lawsuit focused on the Great Lawn. The council later teamed up in the suit with the Act Now coalition.

The Parks Department denied the permit request, saying the areas could not accommodate such an event, and offered alternative locations that the plaintiffs rejected.

The ruling took note of what ANSWER said was the Great Lawn's historic and symbolic significance to the plaintiffs, owing to its role as "the heart and soul of New York City" and as a rallying point for the 1963 civil rights march on Washington led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

But the Saturday rally and another one sought for the next day, the judge said, would damage the Great Lawn's approximately 12 acres, which were restored in 1997 at a cost of more than $18 million.

"Given the intense public interest in these proposed events, the possibility exists that a demonstration estimated to be 75,000 could swell several magnitudes, overwhelm the police and destroy the Great Lawn," Judge Pauley wrote.

The city and its supporters argued that the lawn would be significantly damaged by a gathering of 75,000 people if it rained the day before or the morning of the event.

It was not immediately clear what the ruling might mean for a similar suit, now making its way through State Supreme Court, that was brought by United For Peace and Justice. The group is seeking a permit for 250,000 people on the Great Lawn and North and East Meadows on Sunday, a proposed event that could become the largest protest during the Republican National Convention.

And another group, the Christian Defense Coalition, is also planning to ask a judge to settle when it can have a prayer vigil. It had successfully sued for the right to stage it outside Madison Square Garden, but has been unsuccessful thus far in negotiating the details with the city.

United for Peace and Justice organizers and the city have yet to reach an agreement on how to handle the masses of protesters, including the route of march, setting up the potential for confrontations with the police just as the Republican delegates arrive. And the group itself is fractured over how to proceed, leaving many protesters vowing to use Central Park despite the determined opposition of the city, which wants the rally to take place on the West Side Highway.

"New York City has a way of pulling things off," Mayor Bloomberg's press secretary, Edward Skyler, said. "But if U.P.J. feels that marching past Madison Square Garden and having a rally off the Hudson River is such a tragic abuse of the First Amendment, then they have the option of not taking the city up on its offer."

The conflict over that protest began a year ago, when United for Peace and Justice first solicited a permit to rally on Central Park's Great Lawn, and it grew into a battle that pitted veteran leftist demonstrators against city officials, including a mayor whose love of the park led him to once sit on the board of the Central Park Conservancy and donate large sums of money to its cause.

The United for Peace and Justice leadership backed out of its agreement for a West Side Highway rally and sued in State Supreme Court for access to the park.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting for this article.