Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy of Rockland v. Town of Clarkstown et al. (2nd Circuit 2022)

This case alleges a pattern of discriminatory conduct by the Town of Clarkstown, in coordination with a group called Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhood (“CUPON”), to block the purchase of property by an Orthodox Jewish school – Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy (“ABY”) — by any means necessary. ADL’s proposed brief, prepared by the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in support of ABY, sets forth a history of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”) and its intended purpose, summarizes the troubling pattern of anti-Orthodox exclusionary policy practices in New York and New Jersey localities, which have required intervention by the Department of Justice and State Attorneys General, and examines how the disturbing allegations in Clarkstown mirror the land-use actions taken by other municipalities in this region that were the subject of those enforcement actions.