Anti-horse carriage activists won an appeal Thursday that eliminates a 9-foot buffer zone imposed by a lower-court judge — and lets them get as close as they want to the hansom cabs.
“Today’s court win allows NYCLASS to educate New Yorkers about the mistreatment of carriage horses, virtually without restriction,” said a spokesman for the activist group New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets.
Carriage operator Central Park Sightseeing had sued NYCLASS last year to try to tame “extremist animal-rights organizations.” And a judge granted the buffer zone in February.
But the appeals panel said the no-go zone and a ban on leafletting was “not permissible under First Amendment jurisprudence.”
The appeals court kept a portion of the lower court’s order that prevents activists from blocking the passage of the carriages through the park. They also can’t stop customers from getting on or off the carriages.
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