NATION IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Court Upholds Irish Parade’s Gay Ban

Sponsors of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade may exclude a gay group from marching and the city can’t interfere, a federal judge ruled. The issue had threatened to sideline the nation’s largest and oldest parade. U.S. District Judge Kevin T. Duffy ruled the Ancient Order of Hibernians was protected by the right to free speech from being forced to include a group whose beliefs conflict with their own. “A parade is, by its nature, a pristine form of speech,” Duffy said. The judge granted a permanent injunction against the city, prohibiting it from obstructing or interfering with the Hibernians’ right to conduct the parade.