Yesterday afternoon, Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that the city had to allow Marc Ecko's graffiti party to go on tomorrow, because revoking the permit was unconstitutional. Gothamist is amazed - and pleased - that the people managed to win this one, because the Bloomberg adminstration seemed to be on a roll with clamping down on the fun things in life, like smoking, being noisy, protesting in the park. We hope that some of the artists participating in tomorrow's event will wear shirts with Judge Rakoff's face on it - here's part of his ruling explaining why the city's argument was silly:

"By the same token, presumably, a street performance of 'Hamlet' would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder... As for a street performance of 'Oedipus Rex,' don't even think about it... The denial of the permit on the stated grounds that the demonstration will 'incite' others to actually paint graffiti on subway cars is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment and cannot stand."

Gothamist on the graffiti party drama.