Gearing Up for New Legal Challenges to Stop Mosque

As you know, developments continue to change almost daily concerning plans to build an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero - the site where thousands of Americans were murdered by Islamic terrorists.

As you also know, we represent Tim Brown, a New York City firefighter who survived the 9-11 terrorist attacks, and filed a lawsuit on his behalf against the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in New York State Supreme Court in New York on August 4th - the day after the LPC denied the proposed mosque site landmark status.

Initially, we named only the LPC in the suit.  Now, we are preparing an amended suit that will add additional parties and causes of action - as well as seeking an injunction to prevent the building from being demolished.

In the weeks ahead, our suit will be amended to name the sites owners, as well as the New York City Department of Buildings, Con Edison, and the New York State Public Service Commission. 

With every new question that surfaces, it is increasingly clear this mosque must not be built at this site.  Among them is the status of 49-51 Park Place, which, it has been recently revealed, is owned by public utility Con Edison, not the mosque developers, and represents half of the proposed development site. 

The revelation that a public utility owns part of the site raises a whole host of new legal questions and requires the involvement of a new public agency and possibly additional public hearings.  That, coupled with the Landmarks Commission's procedural violations and deviations from administrative precedent, only strengthens our legal challenge. 

As we have said from the start, this site, where part of one of the 9-11 hijacked planes crashed through the roof of the building, is on sacred, hallowed ground.  This is not the place to build a mosque.

The original petition charged the LPC with acting arbitrarily and capriciously and "contrary to decades of administrative precedent."

The lawsuit is posted here.

Now, we are planning to file an amended petition and request for an injunction in the coming weeks focusing on the fact that the mosque developers do not own the entire proposed site and do not possess the legal right to proceed with demolition or construction. 

In addition to urging the court to put any demolition/construction on hold, we will request that the New York State Public Service Commission, which has regulatory authority of any disposition of land owned by a public utility, conduct a required environmental review detailing the impact that this project would have on the neighborhood character and historical resources. 

At the same time, our legal team also has filed numerous Freedom of Information Law requests with local, state, and federal agencies and is specifically demanding production of the Con Edison lease, which had not been previously disclosed.  We're also seeking information about whether the owners are currently using the property unlawfully without a valid certificate of occupancy.

The fact is that we continue to learn more about this project and will continue to gather the facts.  It is crucial that our client, along with New Yorkers and the American people, get the full story about this project - something that has not occurred.

In addition to representing our client, Tim Brown, we've heard from thousands of Americans who don't believe Ground Zero is the place to build this mosque.

We will keep you posted as new developments unfold.