Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Feds tell Airmont: Stop discriminating against Jews or face legal action again
Call federal prosecutors threatening legal action deja vu for Airmont taxpayers.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan wrote the village Monday that prosecutors plan to file another civil rights action against the Ramapo village on the grounds of discriminating against Orthodox Jews.
Federal prosecutors have been successful with two previous legal actions claiming the Airmont zoning code and enforcement discriminated against Jewish residents since the village formed in 1991.
Prosecutors told Airmont officials they can avoid a lengthy and expensive legal action if they are willing to negotiate a settlement, according to the letter dated July 20 from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.
The letter states the assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has authorized a lawsuit against Airmont for violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, known as RLUIPA.
The letter says the pending legal action is "arising out of the design and implementation of Airmont's zoning code, which substantially burdens, discriminates against, and unreasonably limits the practice of religion by the Village's Orthodox Jewish community."
"We will briefly delay filing the complaint if the Village is willing to negotiate a resolution of this matter through a consent decree that would be filed simultaneously with the complaint," the letter states.
The prosecutors wrote they would file a legal action no later than Sept. 15 and may do so earlier if they don't receive a response within two weeks stating that the village is willing to negotiate a resolution.
The village's attorney, Brian Sokoloff, said Tuesday that Airmont just received the letter and does not "comment on pending or threatening litigation.
"Any discussions with the federal government can't be through the media," said Sokoloff, a partner with the Long Island-based Sokoloff Stern LLP.
Mayor Nathan Bubel and Deputy Mayor Brian Downey and the three other trustees didn't return emails seeking comment.
The Sokoloff Stern firm also represents Airmont in two separate civil rights lawsuits filed in November and December 2018 — one by the Central UTA school and the other by several rabbis and congregations led by Congregation Ridnik.
Sokoloff said the judge in the Ridnik case is considering the village's motion to dismiss the legal action. And he said the judge in the Central UTA case dismissed "a good portion" of that case. He said the village won a legal action in state court.
First Liberty Institute, a nationwide religious rights organization based in Texas, represents the organizations suing the village and praised the federal involvement.
"We are encouraged to know that the Department of Justice is taking these issues seriously and we hope Airmont moves to resolve these matters without having to go through yet another lawsuit from the federal government," said Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel to First Liberty.
Airmont updated its zoning code in 2018 after a nearly two-year process during which the village government thrice extended a building moratorium that some Hasidic Jewish residents found restricted their plans to expand their homes.
Airmont incorporated in 1991 amid accusations of looking to block Orthodox Jews from setting up a synagogue in a residential neighborhood.
The zoning led to Airmont losing legal actions in 1992 and 2005, costing taxpayers legal fees to an Orthodox Jewish coalition and the U.S. Attorney's Office for zoning laws that discriminated against Hasidic and Orthodox Jews looking to establish yeshivas and synagogues.
Federal prosecutors, in their July 20 letter, said Airmont had been the target of an inquiry since the expiration of the latest consent decree from previous legal actions.
"Airmont has once again been engaging in discrimination by, among other things, preventing the operation of home synagogues and a religious school, allegations which are the subject of two currently-pending lawsuits brought by private plaintiffs in the Southern District of New York," the letter states.
As a result of its inquiry, prosecutors determined that Airmont's zoning practices:
Impose a substantial burden on the Orthodox Jewish community's religious exercise under federal law.
Discriminate against the Orthodox Jewish community on the basis of religion or religious denomination in violation of federal law.
Unreasonably limits religious assemblies, institutions or structures.
Prosecutors said they also determined that the village violated the 1996 federal court judgment that mandated that Airmont's zoning code must recognize the category of "residential place of worship," a category which has been removed from the zoning code.
The village has a growing Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish population, as people have been buying houses in the southern Ramapo village as the older residents move out.
The last village election in 2019 saw Bubel and two running-mates supported by mostly Orthodox Jewish residents win election, defeating the incumbent mayor and two trustees on the Preserve Airmont ticket who ran a vigorous write-in vote after leaving the ballot during a petition challenge.
Airmont resident Yehuda Zorger, a frequent government critic and defender of Jews facing what he calls discrimination, said the village officials should learn from the past and avoid the federal government from stepping in to the village's business.
"It is unfortunate that Preserve Airmont has taken this village down this course again," Zorger said. "These village officials in different capacities doing the dirty work of using this municipality as a tool to discriminate daily will either change the laws and their behavior or the Justice Department will do it for them."
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