On Dec. 15, 2022, a New York appellate court unanimously affirmed a lower court’s order, entered June 24, 2022 (discussed here ), which had permanently enjoined Yeshiva University (YU) from refusing to recognize the Yeshiva Pride Alliance as an official student organization. The New York Appellate Division, First Department issued its decision after the United States Supreme Court’s September denial of the University’s application for a stay pending appeal of the permanent injunction, discussed here . The Appellate Division held that the lower court had correctly determined that the University is not excepted from the New York City Human Rights Law. First, the University is not a “religious corporation incorporated under the education law or the religious corporation law,” which would have rendered the school “distinctly private,” [1] and thus not covered under the law’s definition of place or provider of public accommodation, where such discrimination is prohibited. In so deciding, the Court focused on a plain read of the education law and religious corporation law’s definitions, [2] and noted YU’s “proffered statements to public authorities contained in the record” as evidencing that it does not fit within this exception. [3] Further, the Court noted, exceptions to New York […]
