New York–(ENEWSPF)–September 6, 2013. Today, in Floyd v. City of New York, a federal class action lawsuit that successfully challenged the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) stop-and-frisk practices, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel Beldock, Levine & Hoffman, LLP and Covington & Burling, LLP filed their opposition to the City’s request that steps to remedy the unconstitutional stops be stayed. Last month, in a landmark decision following a nine-week trial, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that the highly controversial stop-and-frisk practices violate New Yorkers’ Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against racial discrimination. Since that ruling, David Ourlicht, one of the Floyd plaintiffs, has been illegally stopped a fourth time by NYPD officers. To remedy the widespread constitutional violations, the judge ordered a court-appointed monitor to oversee a series of reforms to NYPD policing practices and also ordered a Joint Remedial Process that will solicit input from a variety of stakeholders, including New York communities most directly affected by policing.
