Floyd v. City of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
283 F.R.D. 153 (2012)
Facts
Research analyzing the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) stop-and-frisk practices from 2004 to 2009 shows that in over 2.8 million Terry stops, over 50 percent of the stops were of Black people, 30 percent were of Latinos, and 10 percent were of White people. At least 60,000 of those stops were unconstitutional because police documented the suspect’s “furtive movements” as the only basis for the stop. This was an average of at least 30 facially unlawful stops of 1200 total stops per day. David Floyd, Lalit Clarkson, Deon Dennis, and David Ourlicht (plaintiffs) were Black men who moved to certify a class of similarly situated plaintiffs, defined as all people who, since 2005, had been or will be subjected to stops and frisks without reasonable suspicion, including people who are stopped based on race. Each of the four men was stopped and frisked at least once, and Ourlicht, who is currently a New York City (NYC) (defendant) resident, was frisked four times, including while he was walking along a sidewalk, sitting on a bench, and entering a car. The proposed class sued NYC, the police commissioner, the mayor, and named and unnamed police officers (defendants). The proposed class sought (1) a declaration that the NYPD’s policies and practices fostered unlawful, racially discriminatory searches and seizures in violation of the class’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, and (2) a class-wide injunction that would require the police to change their policies and practices. The government argued that the proposed class lacked standing to seek relief because the assertion that any of them will be unlawfully stopped again in the future is speculative.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Scheindlin, J.)
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