Another Step on the Path to Settling Frisk Cases

[Disir]

A federal appeals panel in Manhattan cleared the way on Friday for the lawsuits challenging the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices to be sent back to a lower-court judge, a step toward negotiating a final settlement in the longstanding legal dispute.

The city and the plaintiffs had sought to have the case sent back to the United States District Court, where they were seeking approval of a deal that would essentially put in place changes ordered by Judge Shira A. Scheindlin last summer, including the appointment of a monitor.

Several police unions that criticized Judge Scheindlin’s decision had opposed returning the case to the trial court. They sought to intervene and wanted the appeals court to decide the appeal of Judge Scheindlin’s ruling by the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, before Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in January that he would seek a broad settlement.

But in its ruling Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said it was preferable for the unions’ motion to be handled in District Court, “particularly because the appropriateness of intervention and the form it takes could well bear on settlement negotiations.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/n...tion=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

'Bout time. I realize this is actually moving rather quickly but it just feels like this is dragging.