Court Dismisses Challenge To Exclusion of Private Schools From NY Law Protecting Students From Sex Abuse

In Levi v. New York State Assembly, (SD NY, Jan. 29, 2014), a New York federal district court dismissed on sovereign immunity and legislative immunity grounds a suit challenging the legislature's failure to include private schools (including religious schools) in the coverage of a 2001 state law designed to protect school students from sexual abuse by school employees. Plaintiff, whose daughter attends a Modern Orthodox Jewish school, complains that private schools were omitted because of opposition to their coverage by ultra-Orthodox Jews. He contended that the legislature's action violated the 1st and 14th Amendments.