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To Protest Pride March June 26  in Greenwich Village Pastor Rusfeldt Is Denied Injunction

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag

SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 24 – A pastor who protested the Gay Price Festival in New York City on the last weekend in June 2021 has filed a Federal lawsuit against NYPD - seemingly in advance of the last weekend of 2022. 

    On June 10, 2022 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel held a proceeding. Inner City Press covered it. 

 The pastor, Aden Rusfeldt of the Key of David Christian Center, notes in his complaint that last year on June 27, 2021 Washington Square East between West 4th Street and Washington Place was closed to vehicular traffic but not to pedestrian traffic.

  His complaint states: "Pastor Aden sincerely holds the religious belief that LGBT lifestyles and behaviors are immoral and antithetical to the will of God." 

In 2021 he was arrested and charged with Disorderly Conduct. The discussion on June 10 included the right to bear a seven foot metal pole. Now he said he "wishes to return to the Pride Festival next year" - that is, this month. 

  He is asking Judge Castel to enjoin NYPD's "heckler's veto policy" and to declare the underlying New York law unconstitionally vague.

The City's Corporation Counsel has replied, among other things, that " plaintiff alleges, inter alia, that he was subjected to  deprivation of freedom of speech, deprivation of free exercise of religion, unreasonable seizure,  deprivation of equal protection, and deprivation of due process stemming from incidents that  occurred on June 27, 2021 in connection with plaintiff’s protest activity. (See Complaint, Dkt.  No. 1). Before we can adequately respond to the complaint, we will need to conduct an  investigation into the facts of the case. This Office still needs the executed authorization for the  release of the June 27, 2021 arrest. An enlargement of time will allow this Office time to receive  the executed authorization for the release of the June 27, 2021." Full letter on Patreon here.

Judge Castel said he will rule on the papers on the injunction request - a status report was due June 14.

On June 16, Pastor Rusfeldt's counsel wrote to Judge Castel that "the parties agreed to terms of a stipulated arrangement... which will vitiate the need to proceed with plaintiff's pending motion for a preliminary injunction. The terms are final but have not been reduced to a formal writing yet." Inner City Press asked, so what are they?

On June 23 Pastor Rusfeldt's lawyer wrote in again, that the deal he thought was final was being reneged on by the NYPD, so "plaintiff respectfully requests that the Court issue a ruling on his Motion for Preliminary Injunction in advance of the NYC Pride March on June 26, 2022."

On June 24, Judge Castel denied the injunction: "there is no present dispute that the City’s intention is to issue no dispersal order or make any arrest based upon the content of Rusfeldt’s protected speech or the hostile reaction of the crowd. But the City points out that there is, at least the potentiality, that some speech could be beyond the scope of constitutional protection and it ought not be constrained from enforcing any applicable laws in that circumstance. For example, fighting words, see Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. V. B.L. by and through Levy, 141 S. Ct. 2038, 2046 (2021) (citing  Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942), and speech directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and likely to produce such action, see Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447 (1969), are not constitutionally protected. Because Rusfeldt has failed to show that the City will likely engage in any action that violates his protected rights, he cannot demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable harm. It is unnecessary for the Court to delve deeper into his likelihood of success on the merits or address the public interest and the balance of equities prongs. Rusfeldt’s motion for a preliminary injunction will be denied."

Rusfeldt's lawyer has written in, stating that the Order has a material error (about City's lack of commitment to not issue a dispersal order for constitutionally protected speech) and should be reconsidered. Rusfeldt wants this language so-ordered on an emergency basis.

Watch this site.

For now, the next conference would be on October 24 at 11:30 pm.

The case is Rusfeldt v. City of New York, et al., 22-cv-594 (Castel)  

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