JUDGE DECLINES TO HOLD HEARING
ON FALUN GONG GROUP'S INJUNCTION REQUEST

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

February 1, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - A San Francisco Superior Court judge refused today to issue an immediate order requested by a Falun Gong spiritual group to bar city funding of the Chinese New Year Parade on Feb. 11.

Judge Ronald Quidachay declined this morning to grant a temporary restraining order, and then this afternoon announced he will not hold an additional hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction requested in the group's lawsuit against the city.

Joseph Breall, a lawyer for the Western Falun Dafa Association, commonly known as Falun Gong, said the group will continue to pursue the lawsuit filed this morning and will now seek a permanent injunction against the city at a hearing later this spring.

Joseph Breall, Falun Gong attorney.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

Breall estimated that hearing will be held in Superior Court in early April.

Although this year's parade will be over, he said the case will affect future parades.

"The case is alive and well," Breall said. "The court's ultimate decision will affect how the city funds parades from here on in."

Falun Gong claims in the suit that the city should be required to take back a $77,000 parade organization grant given to the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce because the chamber discriminated when it denied Falun Gong a place in the parade.

The lawsuit contends the alleged discrimination violates a no-bias clause in the grant agreement as well as the city's administrative code.

The lawsuit also seeks an order barring the city from providing free police and fire services for the parade.

The Falun Gong association also sued the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in a second part of the lawsuit that accuses the chamber of violating the state's anti-discrimination law.

Breall said the group will also pursue that part of the lawsuit, but said he did not know whether it will be heard at the same time as the bid for a preliminary injunction against the city.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce has said it excluded Falun Gong from the parade because it is a political group.

Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said the city contends that the parade sponsor's decision on what groups to include in the parade is protected by the right of free speech.

Dorsey said, "The U.S. Supreme Court has established that a parade sponsor is a private association that has a First Amendment right to communicate its message in the way it wants.

"It would be unconstitutional for the city to require the inclusion or exclusion of a group in the parade," Dorsey said.

The spokesman said the city also maintains that Falun Gong has no standing to challenge the grant agreement between the city and the chamber and that Falun Gong should take any discrimination complaints it has to the city Human Rights Commission before going to court.

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