Court Blocks Reform of Unconstitutional Stop-and-Frisk

To the dismay of civil rights advocates, on Thursday a federal appeals court blocked the implementation of reforms to the New York City Police Department’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” program, which had been ordered in an earlier district court ruling.

The decision today by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will delay a ruling by District Court judge Shira Scheindlin, which said the NYPD has violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of people by wrongly targeting black and Hispanic men in stop-and-frisk searches. Scheindlin had ordered an outside monitor to oversee major changes to the program.

The reforms will now be halted until a further appeal by the city, which has pushed hard against stop-and frisk-reform, is heard in the months to come.

In addition, without the prompt of a legal request, the court ordered Judge Scheindlin to be removed from the case claiming she “ran afoul of the code of conduct for U.S. judges” when she gave of a series of media interviews and public statements after her ruling, the Associated Press reports.