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Parents, students and teachers protest against school closures and the expansion of charter schools across the street from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse (center house).

The pavement outside of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Upper East Side townhouse became a battleground in two fights this afternoon — one against school closures and another for the right to protest against them on a public sidewalk.

A group of parents, students and teachers sued in federal court last week for the right to demonstrate on both sides of the street outside of Bloomberg’s home. They said their protests at Tweed Courthouse — home to the Department of Education — had fallen on deaf ears.

On Friday, the protesters won their case. But the city appealed, and this morning a panel of circuit court judges overturned the first decision, ruling that the demonstrators had to stay on the south side of East 79th Street, across the street from the mayor’s door.

And so protesters, who had vowed to demonstrate regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome of their lawsuit, took their chants of “Phase out Bloomberg” to just the south side. (more…)

A group of parents, students and teachers will be able to bring their protests nearly to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s doorstep, a federal judge ruled today.

The ruling sets the stage for what is likely to be one of the largest demonstrations against the city’s plan to close 20 schools and allow the expansion of charter schools inside many city school buildings.

Two students at a school slated for closure were among a group that sued this week for the right to rally outside the mayor’s home. They argue that the city has ignored their protests outside of the Department of Education’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters and at individual schools and want to bring the issue to the mayor’s door. (more…)