Op-Eds and Columns

Oct 26, 2009

Column: Public Use, Robert Moses and the Fight Over Atlantic Yards (New York Law Journal)

A recently published book, Wrestling with Moses, recounts battles waged by renowned urban-planning advocate Jane Jacobs against projects proposed by master planner Robert Moses that would have torn down hundreds of residential buildings in Manhattan to clear the way for “urban renewal.” With the New York Court of Appeals now poised to rule in the long-running eminent-domain fight arising out of the proposed condemnation of homes and other private property for a sports arena and luxury housing in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards, the book’s discussion of Moses’ bulldozing of New York City neighborhoods takes on special resonance.... Read More

Oct 22, 2009

Op-Ed: New Yorkers Deserve a Candid Talk on 'Ring of Steel' Cameras (Daily News)

Mayor Bloomberg's got a camera fetish. He must - how else do you explain the blank check to blanket New York with enough surveillance cameras to track millions of us going to work, taking our kids to school or stopping into a corner store?... Read More

Oct 21, 2009

Column: Waving While Latino Might Get You Ticketed in Oyster Bay (LongIslandWins.com)

Imagine being stopped by police and fined $250 for waving your arms on the sidewalk. It could happen in Oyster Bay. Last month, the Oyster Bay Town Board enacted a local ordinance making it a crime to stand on a public sidewalk and solicit employment. The law targets day laborers, who are often Latino immigrants, but it affects all of us.
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Oct 14, 2009

Column: US Law is for Everyone (New York Metro)

President Obama has taken many strong and vital stands in the name of our civil liberties – chief among them his unequivocal ban of torture, his pledge to close Guantanamo, and his order to close all CIA “black sites” – secret prisons around the world where an untold number of detainees were interrogated in ways not allowed on US soil. But for the Obama administration to truly become the human rights beacon the world needs, its actions must match the president’s powerful rhetoric.
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Sep 02, 2009

Column: Hopeful DAs Get a Forum (New York Metro)

In two weeks, Manhattan residents will begin the process of electing a new district attorney. As the top elected criminal justice official, the DA has a profound impact on our civil rights and liberties.... Read More

Aug 25, 2009

Column: A Darker Picture for Attorney's Fees in Civil Rights Cases (New York Law Journal)

Civil rights suits often are possible only because of statutory provisions authorizing courts to award attorney's fees to prevailing plaintiffs. In two recent decisions, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, led by former Chief Judge John Walker and current Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, has substantially reduced the fees available to Manhattan civil rights lawyers who file cases outside the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Even more troubling, the court did so in terms that threaten to undermine fee awards more broadly.... Read More

Jul 27, 2009

Column: Recommendations for Suffolk Hate Crime Task Force (LongIslandWins.com)

Last winter, in response to the murder of Long Island resident and Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero, the Suffolk County Legislature created a Hate Crimes Task Force “to examine the sources of racial tension in the County, to study and analyze the mechanisms used to report hate crimes in the County, and provide recommendations on current hate crime legislation.”... Read More

Jun 30, 2009

Column: 'Terrorists' and Entrapment (New York Law Journal)

Last month’s arrest of four men from Newburgh, New York who allegedly planned to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and use a missile to shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh is this country’s most recent claimed incident of domestic terrorism. Published reports indicate, however, that at the center of the plot was a government informant who actively recruited a group of unsophisticated men, secured for them a surface-to-air missile and fake bombs, and even offered cash so that one of the accused plotters could pay for a brother’s kidney transplant. ... Read More

Jun 17, 2009

Column: NY Should Say 'I Do!' (New York Metro)

I felt a growing sense of enthusiasm as we entered the final weeks of the legislative session that New York was about to recognize marriage rights for all New Yorkers – including lesbian and gay couples. And then came the political coup in the Senate.... Read More

May 28, 2009

Op-Ed: New Yorkers Need to Upgrade Abortion Laws (On the Issues Magazine)

Laurel Simons, (not her real name) who lives in a small town in Western New York, was pregnant with her first child when she got the call that every pregnant woman dreads: routine testing revealed a serious problem. The fetus had a genetic anomaly, Trisomy 18, which has an extremely low survival rate. Only five percent of fetuses with this condition reach full term, and half of those don't survive past two months.... Read More