Where Civil Rights Come From
Civil rights in the United States come from three layers of law: the Constitution and its amendments, federal statutes, and state and local statutes. Each layer adds protection, and in New York City the local layer is the broadest of the three.
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The Constitution
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion and the press. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process and protects against self-incrimination. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law.
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Federal statutes
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Fair Housing Act prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, familial status and other protected characteristics.
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New York State and City law
The New York State Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on age, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, marital status or disability. The New York City Human Rights Law goes further and offers broader protection against discrimination than either state or federal law.
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Civil rights and civil liberties
Civil liberties are the individual freedoms the Constitution and laws guarantee: speech and expression, religion, privacy, the right to bear arms and the right to a fair trial. They also protect against government overreach, including unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishment, and they guarantee due process and equal protection. The distinction is one of emphasis. Civil rights are about equal treatment and freedom from discrimination; civil liberties are about individual freedom and protection from government interference.
The Civil Rights Cases We Handle
We represent people whose civil rights were violated in prison, in police custody, at work and in the foster care system. On the prison side, that means prisoners’ rights violations, sexual assault in prison, prison injuries, medical malpractice in prison and wrongful death in prison. On the police side, it means police misconduct, sexual assault and medical malpractice in police custody, wrongful arrest and wrongful conviction. We also handle employment discrimination, foster care abuse and misconduct by city officials.
Protecting the Constitutional Rights of Prisoners
Sexual assault, injuries and medical malpractice are serious problems in prisons. In our experience they rarely happen without an institutional failure behind them, and that failure is usually what the claim is built on.
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Sexual assault
Assaults in prison typically follow from abuse of power by correctional officers, a failure to classify and separate inmates by risk, inadequate supervision of inmate interactions, and overcrowding that breeds violence. Reports of threats or earlier assaults are ignored or dismissed, vulnerable inmates are placed in general population or high-risk areas, and no real risk assessment or protective measure is put in place. After an assault, the institution may fail to collect and preserve evidence, discourage or retaliate against inmates who report, keep the investigation opaque and unaccountable, and leave investigators and prosecutors without adequate training or resources.
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Injuries
Prison injuries come from unsafe conditions such as poor lighting and missing signage in common areas, unmaintained flooring, stairs and handrails, and spills or hazards left uncleaned. They also come from malfunctioning or outdated exercise equipment, inadequate safety measures on work machinery, and inmates put to work on equipment without proper training or supervision. Injuries from fights are compounded when staff fail to intervene, when staffing is too thin to monitor and control inmate behavior, and when medical attention for injuries sustained in assaults is delayed.
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Medical care
Medical malpractice in prison usually starts with inadequate initial health screenings and assessments. It continues with delays in referring inmates to specialists or outside providers, no follow-up care or monitoring of chronic conditions, long waits for appointments and procedures, and failure to respond to urgent medical requests or emergencies. Understaffing and a lack of resources in prison medical facilities sit behind most of these failures.
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Mental health
Mental health care in prison is often reduced to medication. Common problems include overreliance on psychotropic drugs for behavior control, failure to consider drug interactions or side effects, and inadequate monitoring and adjustment of medication regimens. There are too few qualified mental health professionals on staff, and therapy, counseling and support groups go unprovided. Solitary confinement is overused for inmates with mental health issues, and suicide prevention and crisis intervention are inadequate.
Police Misconduct Claims in New York
Police misconduct takes four main forms. If you experienced any of them, you may have a civil rights claim.
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Excessive force
Excessive force includes physical assault and battery, such as punching, kicking or beating a suspect during arrest or detention; chokeholds and other dangerous restraint techniques; and slamming a suspect against a wall, floor or vehicle. It includes unjustified use of weapons, such as shooting an unarmed or non-threatening person, using a taser or pepper spray without proper justification, and deploying tear gas or rubber bullets in a non-violent situation. It also includes the conduct that leads up to force: confrontational or aggressive behavior, ignoring opportunities to resolve a conflict peacefully, and failing to use communication and negotiation to de-escalate.
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False arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution
These claims arise when police make an arrest without probable cause or sufficient evidence, arrest on a hunch or a personal bias, or fabricate or exaggerate circumstances to justify an arrest. They also arise when police hold someone without legal authority, refuse to let a detainee contact an attorney or family, or fail to bring a detainee promptly before a judge for arraignment. Malicious prosecution covers pursuing criminal charges without sufficient evidence, withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense, and coercing witnesses or suspects into false testimony.
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Racial profiling and discrimination
Racial profiling occurs when police stop, search or arrest people because of their race, use race as a primary factor in deciding whom to investigate, subject people of color to more frequent and invasive searches, or apply different standards of suspicion depending on race. It shows up in more citations and arrests in communities of color, harsher penalties or sentences for similar offenses, and a failure to investigate crimes or complaints in certain neighborhoods. Racial slurs and derogatory language, stereotyping and assumptions based on race, and a failure to address implicit bias through training and accountability are all part of the same pattern.
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Planting evidence and falsifying reports
Officers who carry “throw-down” weapons or drugs to plant at a crime scene, slip evidence into a suspect’s pockets or vehicle during a search, or claim to have found evidence that was never there are committing a civil rights violation. So are officers who exaggerate or fabricate probable cause in a report, omit exculpatory evidence or conflicting witness statements, alter or destroy video or audio recordings, lie under oath about an arrest or search, provide false or misleading information to secure a conviction, or coordinate their testimony with other officers to keep the story consistent.
Employment Discrimination and Retaliation
Employment discrimination includes discrimination based on age, sex and gender, sexual orientation, race and national origin, as well as sexual harassment.
Retaliation is separate. It occurs when an employer takes adverse action against an employee for a protected activity, such as filing a discrimination complaint, participating in an investigation or opposing discriminatory practices. The obvious forms are demoting, transferring or firing the employee who spoke out, cutting their hours or pay, subjecting them to increased scrutiny or discipline, or giving negative references to future employers. The subtler forms are excluding the employee from meetings, projects or social events, denying them resources or training, or making the workplace hostile enough that they quit.
Talk to Us
If your civil rights have been violated, call us at 212-233-1233 or email [email protected]. We represent victims of civil rights violations throughout New York State, including all five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island), Long Island and Upstate New York.
