The association LICRA (Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Section) challenged the implicit refusal of the Mayor of Tassin-la-Demi-Lune to reinstate substitution menus (pork-free or meat-free options) in school canteens. These menus had been provided between 2012 and 2016 but were suppressed in subsequent public service contracts starting in September 2016. Following a lower court judgment in October 2024 that annulled the refusal and ordered the reinstatement of the menus, the municipality appealed to the Cour administrative d’appel de Lyon. The municipality argued that LICRA lacked the standing to challenge the canteen policy. The court rejected this, ruling that LICRA’s statutory mission—to combat racism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination—gives it a valid interest in defending individual liberties and fighting discrimination in public services. The Cour administrative d’appel dismissed the municipality's appeal. The court found that Tassin-la-Demi-Lune had suppressed the menus based on an abstract application of secularism without demonstrating any actual operational, financial, or human resource obstacles It upheld the lower court’s order for the town to reintroduce substitution menus within six months.
l'article L. 243-2 du code des relations entre le public et l'administration; l'article 10 de la déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen; l'article 1er de la Constitution; principes de laïcité et de neutralité