The anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Israel group United for Peace and Justice and its lawyers at the New York Civil Liberties Union deserve a word of thanks from us and from all New Yorkers for agreeing yesterday not to sue the city for the right to hold a protest in Central Park on the Sunday before the Republican national convention. Instead, the protest will take place on the West Side Highway. Parks officials had warned that a protest would ruin the Great Lawn. Its sod and environs were recently restored at a cost of $21 million, much of it privately raised.

Too many potential litigants these days are willing to rush into court to try their luck even when they have no case. United for Peace and Justice and the New York Civil Liberties Union showed restraint. They saved the city and the court system the cost of what would have been frivolous litigation, given, as these columns pointed out, the rulings of the Supreme Court in similar cases. Their decision means that all New Yorkers will be able to enjoy the Great Lawn in all its verdant splendor on August 29 and for years thereafter. Now the police and the protest group can move ahead with planning to make sure that the August 29 protest is a peaceable one.