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SUMMARY ORDER
SUMMARY ORDER
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Hollander v. Institute for Research on Women & Gender at Columbia UniversityHollander v. Institute for Research on Women & Gender at Columbia University

Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Apr 16, 2010
09-1910
Versions:

Roy Den Hollander, New York, NY, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Robert D. Kaplan, Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP, New York, NY, for Columbia University Defendants-Appellees.

Jean-David Barnea, Assistant United States Attorney (Ross E. Morrison, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel), for Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY, for Federal Defendants-Appellees.

Patrick J. Walsh, Assistant Solicitor General, (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Peter Karanjia, Special Counsel to the Solicitor General, of counsel), for Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, New York, NY, for State Defendants-Appellees.

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff-Appellant Roy Den Hollander1 appeals from the judgment of the district court dated April 30, 2009 (Kaplan, J.), adopting the Report and Recommendation dated April 15, 2009 by United States Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox, and granting defendants’ motions to dismiss for lack of standing. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts and specification of issues on appeal.

“The party seeking judicial review bears the burden of alleging facts that demonstrate its standing.” Green Island Power Auth. v. Fed. Energy Regulatory Comm‘n, 577 F.3d 148, 159 (2d Cir.2009) (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted). Plaintiff alleges that the existence of Columbia University‘s Women‘s Studies Program and the corresponding lack of an equivalent “Men‘s Studies Program” inflicts harm on certain men as a class by, inter alia, promoting “misandry-feminism,” promoting feminism as a religion, and robbing men of an equivalent educational experience. As to the plaintiff‘s discrimination-based claims, the district court properly dismissed the action for lack of standing as to all defendants because the plaintiff‘s claims of harm amount to the kind of speculative harm for which courts cannot confer standing. See Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992) (stating that “the plaintiff must have suffered an ‘injury in fact‘—an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical“) (internal quotation marks, citations, and footnote omitted); Gully v. Nat‘l Credit Union Admin. Bd., 341 F.3d 155, 160 (2d Cir.2003) (same). Nor has plaintiff made out the requirements for taxpayer standing for his Establishment Clause claim. See DeStefano v. Emergency Housing Group, Inc., 247 F.3d 397, 405 (2d Cir.2001). Thus, with no occasion to reach any of plaintiffs’ further arguments on appeal—about which we share, in any event, the district court‘s grave doubts—we AFFIRM the dismissal of the action for substantially the reasons stated in Judge Fox‘s thorough Report and Recommendation as adopted by the district court.

Burton T. Ryan, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, for Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Central Islip, NY, for Appellee.

David A. Lewis, Assistant Federal Defender, Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., New York, NY, for Appellant.

SUMMARY ORDER

Defendant Brian Pearl appeals from a November 20, 2008 order of the District Court convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of violating the conditions of his supervised release, revoking his supervised release, and sentencing him to fourteen months’ imprisonment.

In response to an order entered by this Court on February 17, 2010, both parties have filed letter briefs asserting that Pearl was released from prison on October 21, 2009. As Pearl is no longer in prison and is not serving a term of supervised release, his appeal is moot. See, e.g., Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 118 S.Ct. 978, 140 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998).

Accordingly, we dismiss Pearl‘s appeal as moot.

Notes

1
William A. Nosal was a Class Representative when the case was before the district court and as of the filing of the appeal at bar, but has since withdrawn.

Case Details

Case Name: Hollander v. Institute for Research on Women & Gender at Columbia University
Court Name: Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Date Published: Apr 16, 2010
Citations: 372 F. App'x 140; 09-1910
Docket Number: 09-1910
Court Abbreviation: 2d Cir.
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