Second Circuit Upholds Decision To Reassign Controversial “Stop-and-Frisk” Class Action To A New Judge

There are stunners and there are non-stunners. This is a stunner…

In one of the most highly controversial class actions currently working its way through the federal court system, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a pair of decisions (here and here) on November 13, 2013, rejecting what it termed an “unprecedented  motion” filed U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin – the federal judge who had been handling the trial court proceedings in the class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – to appear on her own behalf in order to seek reconsideration of the Second Circuit’s decision to reassign the case of Floyd v. City of New York – a class action challenging the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policies – to a different judge given the appearance of partiality.

Though Floyd is a civil rights and not a workplace class action, the Second Circuit’s rulings underscore how class action litigation is not for the faint of heart.

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