– Today, the Court of Appeals granted the City of New York’s request for a stay of the joint remedial process ordered in the landmark class action lawsuit Floyd v. the City of New York pending the resolution of the appeal and, without a request by the City, ordered that the case be reassigned to a new district court judge. The Center for Constitutional Rights made the following statement in response.
We are dismayed that the Court of Appeals saw fit to delay the long-overdue process to remedy the NYPD’s unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices, and we are shocked that they cast aspersions on the professional conduct of one of the most respected members of the federal judiciary and reassigned the case. The City carried out a whisper campaign against Judge Sheindlin but never once raised any legal claims of bias, even in its papers to the Court of Appeals. That, unprompted, they should reassign the case from a judge deeply steeped in the issues for the last 14 years, who gave the City every opportunity to defend itself in the course of this litigation, is troubling and unprecedented.