191 F.R.D. 52 | S.D.N.Y. | 1999
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
I. Introduction
This case involves alleged constitutional violations by a unit of the New York City Police Department known as the Street
The named individual plaintiffs are six Black and Latino men between the ages of 23 and 31 years old who reside in the boroughs of the Bronx and Brooklyn. Id. ¶¶ 12-17. Each plaintiff alleges that he has been stopped and frisked by police officers believed to be members of the SCU without reasonable suspicion and on the basis of his race and national origin. Id. ¶¶ 63-74. Each claims to have sustained injuries as a result of these encounters including fear of the possibility of future stops and frisks.
Plaintiffs are seeking reconsideration of an October 20, 1999 Opinion and Order dismissing their Equal Protection claim for failure to identify similarly situated non-minority individuals who were not stopped and frisked by the SCU. For the following reasons, plaintiffs’ motion is granted and their Equal Protection claim is reinstated.
II. Legal Standard
The legal standard by which a Local Civil Rule 6.3
III. Discussion
Plaintiffs cite the case of Broum v. Oneonta, 195 F.3d 111 (2d Cir.1999), issued six days after this Court’s Order, for the proposition that they need not identify similarly situated non-minority individuals in order to sustain an Equal Protection claim because the discriminatory policy alleged in their amended complaint contains an express, racial classification. In Brown, the Second Circuit explained that when a plaintiff pleads an Equal Protection violation by pointing to a law or policy “ ‘that expressly classifies persons on the basis of race’ ”, 195 F.3d at 118 (quoting Hayden v. County of Nassau, 180 F.3d 42, 48 (2d Cir.1999)),
it is not necessary to plead the existence of a similarly situated non-minority group when challenging a law or policy that contains an express, racial classification. These classifications are subject to strict judicial scrutiny, and strict scrutiny analysis in effect addresses the question of whether people of different races are similarly situated with regard to the law or policy at issue.
Id. (citation omitted). As an example of a policy containing such an express, racial clas
Plaintiffs construe the Brown decision as making clear “that a regular policy of racial profiling by law enforcement agencies — that is, making law enforcement decisions on the basis of racial stereotypes — constitutes a policy containing an express racial classification.” See Letter from Natalie R. Williams and Jennifer R. Cowan, plaintiffs’, counsel, dated November 30, 1999, at 2. Although the holding of Brown does not specifically address this issue, the policy alleged in the Amended Complaint does, in fact, contain an express, racial classification.
The Amended Complaint provides, in relevant part:
John Does 1-500 have implemented and enforced a policy, practice and/or custom of stopping and frisking members of the plaintiff class based solely on the plaintiffs’ race and/or national origin. These suspi-cionless stops and frisks have and are being conducted predominantly on Black and Latino males, on the basis of racial and/or national origin profiling, and are not being conducted on similarly situated White males____
Amended Complaint ¶ 85. Accepting as true all factual allegation set forth in the complaint, Bernheim v. Litt, 79 F.3d 318, 321 (2d Cir.1996), the policy alleged in the above-quoted paragraph contains an express, racial classification.
. References to "Local Civil Rules" are, more specifically, references to the Local Rules of the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, effective April 15, 1997.
. Defendants argue that plaintiffs' Equal Protection claim arises from the intentional discriminatory application of a facially neutral statute or policy. See Letter from Lisa S.J. Yee, defendants' counsel, dated November 17, 1999, at 3. However, the language of the above-quoted paragraph belies any neutrality given that the alleged suspicionless stop and frisks are “based solely on the plaintiffs’ race and/or national origin.” Amended Complaint ¶ 85. (emphasis added).