Preska presided over long-running litigation between Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union and New York's Metropolitan Opera. In June 2000, Preska found the union to be in contempt, determining that the union had defamed the Met and engaged in harassment of Met board members. Preska enjoined the union from distributing leaflets at the opera, but at the 2000 season opening, the union held a demonstration. In February 2001, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the injunction, holding that "While the injunction presents serious questions under the First Amendment and libel law, we hold that the injunction is impermissibly vague because it fails to provide the Union with adequate notice of what conduct is being enjoined." In November 2002, however, the Second Circuit held that Lincoln Center could permissibly block the union from holding a rally in Lincoln Plaza, holding that the location was not a "public forum" and that Lincoln Center management had a consistent policy of limiting "expression in the plaza to events having an artistic or performance-related component." In January 2003, in a strongly worded 148-page decision, Preska ruled in favor of the Met in its defamation and harassment suit against the union, writing that the union and its counsel had withheld evidence in violation of the discovery rules and had not been truthful to the court. She ordered the union to pay the Met's sizable legal fees.