In the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

August Term 2022 No. 22-1741-cv

ATERES BAIS YAAKOV ACADEMY OF ROCKLAND, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TOWN OF CLARKSTOWN, GEORGE HOEHMANN, CUPON INC., CITIZENS UNITED TO PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS OF GREATER NANUET INC., Defendants-Appellees.

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

ARGUED: JUNE 14, 2023 DECIDED: DECEMBER 8, 2023 Before: PARKER, PARK, and NATHAN, Circuit Judges.

Appellant Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy of Rockland sued Appellees in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Román, J.) asserting claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000c, et seq., under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, and under state law for tortious interference with contract. The Academy essentially alleged that Appellees blocked construction of a school in Clarkstown, New York intended to educate Orthodox Jewish girls. The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

On appeal, Appellant contends that the district court erred in holding that its religious discrimination and civil rights claims were not ripe and erroneously concluded that it failed to satisfy the traceability requirement for Article III standing as to its tortious interference claim. We agree. We therefore REVERSE the judgment of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

JOSHUA HALPERN, (Yehudah L. Buchweitz, Kevin M. Simmons, David Yolkut, on the briefs), Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Washington, DC, Dallas, TX & New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

ELIZA M. SCHEIBEL, (John M. Flannery, on the brief), Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP, White Plains, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.

2 PARKER, Circuit Judge:

In 2018 and 2019, Plaintiff-Appellant Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy of Rockland (“ABY”) contracted to purchase property in Clarkstown, New York owned by Grace Baptist Church to establish an Orthodox Jewish school. ABY alleges that, in response, the Town of Clarkstown, and Town Supervisor George Hoehmann (the “Town Defendants”), along with local citizens who had formed a chapter of an organization known as Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhood Inc. (“CUPON”), came together to keep the Orthodox school out of the community. ABY alleges that, to achieve this result, the Town Defendants and CUPON manipulated an ostensibly neutral building permit application and zoning appeals process. Eventually, ABY alleges, the Town’s efforts were successful, and Grace Church refused to sell the property to ABY.

ABY then sued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, asserting claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000c, et seq., 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, and state law for tortious interference with contract.

Appellees moved under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state claims. The district court (Román, J.) granted the motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The court reasoned that ABY failed to sufficiently establish that its civil rights and religious discrimination claims based on the denial of a building permit application were ripe because Clarkstown’s Zoning Board of Appeals (the “Zoning Board” or “ZBA”) never issued a final decision on the application. Second, the district court held that ABY failed to plead adeq