New York Times - Fight on Islamic Center Flares Anew as Ex-Firefighter Takes His Case to Court

By Colin Moynihan

The furor over an Islamic center and mosque planned near ground zero flared up again on Tuesday, as lawyers for a former New York City firefighter asked a judge to overturn the citys decision to withhold landmark protection for the building site.

The decision last August by the Landmarks Preservation Commission removed a significant obstacle to the planned construction of a tower on Park Place, two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attack. The former firefighter, Timothy Brown, sued the city that month, saying the commission had been unfairly influenced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has forcefully supported the right of the sites owner to build the center, known as Park51.

The two sides met in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Tuesday, before a television camera and rows of news reporters the first big square-off between the projects supporters and foes since last fall, when the issue became a flashpoint of the election season. . . . .

. . . . One of Mr. Browns lawyers, Jack Lester, told Justice Paul G. Feinman that the commissions decision was arbitrary, capricious and violated administrative precedent. But lawyers for the city and for a management company that runs the 150-year-old building now on the Park Place site countered that the landmarks commission had followed normal procedures and asserted that Mr. Brown, who does not live near ground zero, lacked any special standing to question the decision.

Justice Feinman, who said he expected to rule on the lawsuit in the next month, signaled during the oral arguments that he was looking closely at the issue of standing, repeatedly asking the lawyers to share their thoughts.

Mr. Lester said his clients presence at the World Trade Center on 9/11, when he joined in the rescue and recovery effort, gave him a special interest in the matter. But the judge suggested that by that logic, every police officer and firefighter who worked that day would have the right to intercede in every development project near ground zero. . . .

The complete story is posted here.