In ruling this morning, Judge Scheindlin ruled unconstitutional under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments the New York Police Department’s “stop-and-frisk” policing method. As we have reported on in the past, Judge Scheindlin conducted a bench trial of claims brought by a class of plaintiffs who alleged to have been unlawfully detained under the policy. In the 198-page liability opinion, Judge Scheindlin found that the NYPD’s stops of 4.4 million people from 2004 to 2012 – 80% of which were of black or Hispanic individuals and more than half of which led to a frisk – were done without legal basis in violation of the Fourth Amendment and were targeted to particular races in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Judge Scheindlin explained that her decision was not based on the effectiveness of the stop-and-frisk method.
Continue Reading Judge Scheindlin Rules “Stop-and-Frisk” Unconstitutional

In an opinion dated yesterday, Judge Scheindlin certified a class of plaintiffs who have, since 2005, allegedly been unlawfully detained under the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices. Class treatment of the claims was appropriate, Judge Scheindlin reasoned, because “the overwhelming and indisputable evidence shows that the NYPD has a department-wide stop and frisk program; the program has been designed and revised at the highest levels of the department; the implementation of the program is conducted according to uniform and centralized rules; and monitoring of compliance with the program is hierarchical.” Judge Scheindlin ended the opinion with a harsh critique of the “cavalier attitude” the NYPD displayed in its briefing:
Continue Reading Judge Scheindlin Certifies Class Action Accusing NYPD of Unlawful Stop-And-Frisk Practices