By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n
A federal appeals court recently upheld a lower court ruling that found that New Yorkers have the right to access prosecutorial disciplinary proceedings and records, which are currently shrouded in secrecy. <\/p>\n
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of Civil Rights Corps, a criminal justice nonprofit, and a group of law professors who challenged the constitutionality of a New York State law that keeps the work of its grievance committees secret. <\/p>\n
The professors first sued the state in 2021 after they published nearly two dozen complaints against current and former prosecutors in the Queens District Attorney\u2019s office. Though the state and the Queens DA\u2019s office argued the complaints \u2013 and any subsequent investigation, findings, or disciplinary action taken against the prosecutors \u2013 should be confidential, the law professors and Civil Rights Corps said otherwise. They sued the state, arguing that discipline imposed by the grievance committees was presumptively public. <\/p>\n
A federal district judge agreed in a 2024 ruling, which was appealed by the state and upheld by the Second Circuit at the end of July. <\/p>\n
\u201cA presumptive First Amendment right of access attaches to both Second Department proceedings, including all documents and records reasonably implicated in understanding those proceedings, and the Committee\u2019s dispositions,\u201d the ruling read. <\/p>\n
The court said that the state could not prohibit access to grievance committee proceedings and records \u201cwithout making specific, on-the-record findings justifying confidentiality.\u201d <\/p>\n
Peter Santina, the managing attorney of the prosecutorial accountability project at Civil Rights Corps, called the ruling \u201cvery important.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProsecutors are the most powerful law enforcement officials in the country and they typically have absolute immunity from lawsuits,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge ruling for the public’s right to know what is happening in these times of growing authoritarianism,\u201d he added. \u201cIt’s more important than ever that powerful government officials are held accountable, and that the public knows what agencies and government bodies are doing when they are supposed to be investigating allegations of misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither the state attorney general\u2019s office, which represented the state in the case, nor the Queens DA\u2019s office responded to the Eagle\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n
While the ruling drew praise from the Civil Rights Corps, the New York State Bar Association, an amicus curiae in support of the state in the case, said that it was disappointed by the overturning of the longstanding confidentiality mandated by New York Judiciary Law Section 90(10) for ethics proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision introduces practical challenges for the Grievance Committee by shifting the burden to justify confidentiality in matters that historically remained protected during the investigatory stage,\u201d Taa Grays, the NYSBA\u2019s president, said in a statement. \u201cThough we do not have a formal role in attorney discipline, the association stands ready to make sure that confidentiality is safeguarded and public confidence in the administration of justice is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, complaints against attorneys are submitted to a grievance committee \u2013 there\u2019s one for each of the state\u2019s four Appellate Divisions. The committee begins by screening the complaint and, if necessary, elevating it to be investigated. The committee\u2019s staff then determines whether there is probable cause of professional misconduct warranting public discipline. If authorized by the committee, the Appellate Division can begin formal disciplinary proceedings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye A federal appeals court recently upheld a lower court ruling that found that New Yorkers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-316102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}