Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Tuesday, November 24, 1998
Judge Harold Baer Jr. said the city's refusal to permit the Dec. 1 parade and City Hall news conference to follow hinted at content-based discrimination by a city that has allowed three ticker-tape parades since October.
The city said the World AIDS Day march through city streets on a weekday would be disruptive. The judge said the city's policy permitting certain ticker-tape parades and gatherings at City Hall for events of "extraordinary public interest" is unconstitutional.
"Who is to say that celebrating the Yankee World Series victory is a more or less extraordinary event than the commemoration of World AIDS Day? After all, it is presently estimated that 30.6 million people are living with HIV or AIDS worldwide," the judge wrote.
Michael Hess, the city's top lawyer, called the ruling "a political statement rather than a judicial decision." He said the city will probably appeal.
"To say that extraordinary events like the Yankee victory parade and the John Glenn astronaut parade should be treated equally with any group that wants to conduct a parade, we think is not the right interpretation of the First Amendment," Hess said.
Baer ruled in a case brought by Housing Works Inc., which each year commemorates World AIDS Day by reading the names of victims of the disease from several microphones at City Hall Park.
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