ALBANY - A federal judge has refused to take Occupy Albany's challenge of its eviction from a city park, sending it back to state court and rejecting the protest movement's claim that free speech violations make it primarily a federal case.
U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue notes that Albany officials first filed in state court to end the protesters' two-month encampment in Academy Park because of health and safety concerns.
Lawyers for the demonstrators, who say reform is needed in government that favors the rich, asked to the federal court to take it, arguing the eviction violates their constitutional rights to free speech and the case belongs there.
Mordue said his court lacks "original jurisdiction.
