Town asks federal court to let state consider case
BY ELANAARON Correspondent

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - The township's legal representative has filed a motion asking a U.S. District Court not to hear the civil rights lawsuit filed by Rabbi Avraham Bernstein, who has accused the township of violating his civil rights. The "request of abstention" was filed on Dec. 17 in Trenton.

"There is a state action that Bernstein filed and that is where it ought to be," Township Attorney Duane O. Davison said. "It is very typical for federal court to abstain in a matter where there is a pending state action. On this case, the same party filed in both places. He (Bernstein) picked this forum."

Attorney Gerald A. Marks, who represents Bernstein, believes Davison is wrong.

"We have reviewed the township's papers and we find them to be woefully in error," Marks said. "The township has failed to review a certain case which is an exception and permits the federal court to issue an injunction in civil rights cases.

"Because this is a civil rights action that involves the First Amendment right to pray, which also includes the constitutional right of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, this is a very significant case," Marks said.

Bernstein, a resident of Freehold Township since 1998, is a member of Chabad Lubavitch, a worldwide Jewish organization that is headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bernstein filed a lawsuit against the township after being issued a notice by the zoning officer which stated that he was in violation of municipal land law use by conducting a house of worship in his home on Stillwells Corner Road.

The suit accuses Freehold Township of violating the free exercise clause of the U.S. Constitution, the New Jersey State Constitution and the Religious Land Use Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA).

A second lawsuit was filed after Bernstein discovered that the township had set up a surveillance camera in the window of town hall, which is directly across from Bernstein's home.

Complaints from neighbors concerning religious activities in the rabbi's home, specifically accusing the rabbi of hosting as many as 70 people at Friday night services, prompted the township to set up the camera. The actual numbers, however, were less, averaging somewhere between 35 and 50 people.

A resident of Woodcrest Drive, a street that is around the corner from Bernstein's home, has asked the Zoning Board of Adjustment to determine if the Bernstein property is a house of worship. The zoning board is expected to discuss the issue during a meeting to be held at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Freehold Township Senior Center, Jackson Mills Road.