Prisoners do not have a constitutional right to daily matzoh and weekly grape juice, a federal judge has ruled. Even if they ask really nicely! The decision from U.S. Southern District Judge Shira Scheindlin came in response to a suit brought forth by a man named Christopher Henry, who is serving time on Rikers for first-degree sodomy. more ›

Last week Ann Pettway, the woman accused of kidnapping 20-day-old Carlina White from Harlem Hospital in 1987, was indicted on federal charges of kidnapping. Yesterday in court she pleaded not guilty. Though she doesn't deny that she raised White, Pettway's public defender plans to argue that the real "question is whether she was kidnapping her or whether the baby was given to her." Naturally, they'll push the argument that she was given the baby. more ›

A federal appeals court rejected the city's attempt to force cab drivers to switch to hybrid vehicles yesterday, saying regulating fuel efficiency is the federal government's job. The decision, which upheld a 2009 ruling that the city's efforts were an attempt to mandate fuel economy, is the latest in a line of roadblocks. Regarding yesterday's decision, city lawyer Michael Cardozo said, "We do not believe that Congress intended for the Clean Air Act or the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to prohibit local governments from implementing incentive programs that encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly taxis." If the city wants to appeal again, they'll have to take it to the US Supreme Court. more ›

The Obama administration is reportedly working on a deal with senators that would shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay and make Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 planners stand trial in a military court—not a civilian court. Although President Obama had initially supported Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to try the suspects in a Lower Manhattan federal courthouse, the administration began distancing itself from the proposed New York trial after Republicans and local electeds including Mayor Bloomberg spoke out against it. more ›

A week after the city was found to be at fault for discriminating against blacks and Latinos who wanted to become firefighters, a Brooklyn federal judge ruled that the city must pay damages to thousands of black and Latino applicants, and give jobs and retroactive pay to 293 others. more ›

If you've ever tried to fight a ticket handed to you by a cop in the subway system, you'll be familiar with the "hearings" held by the NYC Transit Adjudication Bureau (TAB), during which you waste half your day in Brooklyn waiting to plead your case before a bored bureaucrat in a small room with a tape recorder. These typically anticlimactic hearings are closed to the public, unless the accused consents to an observer’s presence. Naturally, the NYCLU opposes these closed doors, because they "deprive the public of information about the fairness of the hearing process and accused transit riders of an understanding of the adjudication process." more ›

It doesn't seem like political pressure or security concerns will stop the trials of five suspected terrorists from taking place in New York — but the city's prejudiced residents might. The lawyers representing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the four other suspected 9/11 plotters might ask a judge to relocate the trial, according to the Times. more ›

The man or woman responsible for presiding over the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected plotters of the 9/11 attacks will likely be chosen with the kind of machine that "might have been used to call out bingo numbers in a church fund-raiser," according to the Times. The 20-some active Manhattan federal court judges — as well as a few who are on senior status — will have their names put into a lottery machine to determine who will preside over the high profile case, which could last years, and will likely result in the assignment of around the clock security the rest of the judge's life. more ›

Will the 90-year-old J.D. Salinger be forced to leave his New Hampshire home and return to New York City after leaving in 1953? The reclusive and elusive author filed a lawsuit yesterday in Manhattan federal court. The NY Post reports that the move was to "block an anonymous author from cashing in on the iconic coming-of-age novel with a follow-up titled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye." The book has a character named Mr. C leaving a nursing home to visit many of the places Holden Caulfield did in the 1951 novel Catcher in the Rye. The book is dedicated to Salinger, where he is called: "the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life." The author, who goes by John David California, calls the hermetic legend a "great inspiration." If Salinger wins, all of California's copies of the book will be destroyed, and "he's also seeking unspecified damages from the alleged copycat author, saying his copyright 'is worth an enormous amount of money.'" This isn't the first time he's sued in a copycat case. Aspiring authors: the world doesn't need a sequel to any great classics (Catcher in the Rye 2: Electric Boogaloo just doesn't sound right). more ›

The lone surviving Somali pirate who, along with three others, held an American container ship captain hostage, was indicted on ten counts (including piracy and kidnapping) in federal court yesterday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, whose age is being debated by prosecutors (who believe he is 19) and his defense (who say he's 15), is accused of using a machine gun to threaten Captain Richard Phillips and "us[ing] a radio to communicate with representatives of the United States government and threaten[ing] to kill the captain unless his demands were satisfied." Prosecutors also say that Muse was the leader of the group, while his defense has previously suggested that Muse himself was "kidnapped and taken hostage." Muse will be arraigned tomorrow. more ›

A federal judge has stepped in to block a regulation requiring all new taxis in NYC to meet a minimum fuel-efficient standard of 30 miles per gallon, Reuters reports. Taxi fleet owners had filed a lawsuit last month to stop the mandate, calling it costly and potentially unsafe, and today U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty granted a preliminary injunction, ruling that the owners had "demonstrated a likelihood of success." The hybrid taxi initiative is a major part of Bloomberg's plan to reduce the city's carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030. In a statement, the mayor unloaded on Crotty: "The decision is not a ruling against hybrids cabs, rather a ruling that archaic Washington regulations are applicable and therefore New York City, and all other cities, are prevented from choosing to create cleaner air and a healthier place to live." more ›

Taxi fleet owners filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday to stop a fuel-efficiency mandate from going into effect October 1st, the date when all new taxis will need to be hybrid vehicles. Fleet owners' lawyers argue that only the federal government can set rules on fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions. Plus they contend that hybrid cars like the Ford Escape cannot be safely adapted into taxis because they're smaller with limited legroom for passengers, making them more vulnerable in crashes because of their proximity to the partitions. Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the group, tells the Post, "This is a tragedy in the making." Another lawyer for the group declares, "Those partitions are deathtraps." Also, they're expensive to install! more ›

Lawyers for Jerry Seinfeld insist the comic was just joking when he described "Sneaky Chef" author Missy Chase Lapine as a "wacko" for accusing his wife of plagiarism. Lapine is currently suing for trademark infringement because she says Jessica Seinfeld’s hit book about sneaking healthy food into kids’ snacks, called "Deceptively Simple," contains too many similarities to "Sneaky Chef" – and it was published by HarperCollins, who twice rejected Lapine’s pitch. more ›

John Gotti Jr. interrupted his lawyer and spoke with reporters after appearing at Federal Court in White Plains yesterday. Gotti, reacting to a 2006 story in the NY Post which claimed he was becoming a government informant, became angry and said that his family was scared of a possible mob hit:My family lives in fear as a result of this. What happens next? Tell me, what happens next? Does it make it all better if... more ›

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn fired Councilman Charles Barron's chief of staff Viola Plummer yesterday. Quinn had required Plummer to sign a letter agreeing to behave during meetings, after Plummer heckled Quinn during a meeting about street namings and made reference to an "assassination" of Councilman Leroy Comrie, but Plummer refused (she has maintained that she meant a "assassination" of Comrie's character and/or political prospects). And Plummer filed a $1 million racial discrimination suit against Quinn. more ›

A note to anyone writing under a pseudonym: Don't let the pseudonym become larger than life. After deliberating for a couple hours, a jury came to a verdict in a film production company's lawsuit against Laura Albert, who wrote novels under the name JT Leroy. A tipster at the Federal Court just gave us the scoop:

Jury verdict in: Laura Albert and Underdogs Inc. are both liable for fraud and for breach of contract. Damages: $110,000 for economic damages, $6,500 for punitive.

There's a new group of servers accusing a restaurant of paying sub-minimum wages - former employees of the two upscale Mr. Chow locations. One of the servers also accuses restaurateur Michael Chow of kicking him in the stomach! The three filed a lawsuit yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court. more ›

Perfect for a Saturday in NY: A lovely, married head doctor accused of having sex with a prisoner! Psychologist Madgalena Sanchez was arraigned at Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday for having sex with an inmate under her care - and lying to the Department of Justice about it! more ›

-- Some late breaking news: our sources at the Bronx Zoo are reporting a power outage. So if you're in the Bronx tonight, watch out-- bears get really ornery when they can't watch their evening television! more ›

Federal, city, and local NJ authorities are facing a big "d'oh!" on their faces after mistakenly putting a Chinese-American woman in Rikers for 8 days last year. Because now the woman, Hui Ping Wang, who was arrested at JFK Airport when she was returning from a trip to China, is suing many law enforcement agencies, incuding the Department of Immigration, the city's Department of Correction, and Bergen County NJ's sheriff's office. Why all the fuss? The Daily News explains:

Hui Ping Wang, 33, was locked up at Rikers Island on Aug. 10, 2005, after a computer check indicated a warrant had been issued for a woman named Hui Hua Wang in Bergen County, N.J. more ›

If you've ever been interested in the mafia, either the real live mob or the movie kind, Gothamist highly recommends that you follow the trial of former NYPD detectives Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito, who are accused of racketeering (and being involved in eight murders), which is going on in Brooklyn Federal Court right now. The lead witness for the prosecution was a 72 year old convicted pot dealer, another witness said one of the cops used mob money to launch his screenwriting dreams in Hollywood and one of the defendants eats lunch at the Park Place diner - Newsday notes Eppolito likes pastrami on rye with mustard (but who doesn't?). All the local papers have had coverage that goes beyond colorful - it's like you're watching an episode of The Sopranos, only if that were crossed wtih NYPD Blue and The Shield. Today, the NY Times looks at how Eppolito's autobiography, Mafia Cop, is at the center of the trial, since Eppolito comes out seeming like a very "conflicted but ultimately dedicated" (NY Times) police officer as well as an imaginative writer; the Daily News' Denis Hamill mentioned a Mafia Cop quote: "I learned something about myself during that gunfight. I not only had the capacity to kill. I had the capacity to forget about it, to not let it bother me." Huh. [Fitting for this digital age, Pocket Books is offering the Mafia Cop for download on Amazon - and you don't have to feel like you might be supporting a possible murderer, as Eppolito doesn't get any residuals.] more ›

Some of the injustices employees are claiming is that they were criticized for speaking Spanish to a South American customer and for speaking Spanish to each other during breaks, though managers spoke in other languages to their relatives on the phone and in French to stockboys. Sephora says they encourage employees to speak customers' native languages, but feels that speaking in non-English language can seem offputting. more ›

After the city has decided to revoke the permit for the launch party of his new graffiti video game, designer Marc Ecko is doing the next best thing: Suing the city. And the NYCLU is getting involved, joining Ecko in a press conference yesterday asking the mayor to reinstate the permit. Animal Magazine publisher and graffiti enthusiast Bucky Turco was at the press conference gave us his report, with including Ecko's invitation for the Mayor:

His lawyer, Daniel M. Perez stated, "Mark Ecko will be filing a lawsuit in NY Federal Court." They have enlisted the help of the NYCLU who wrote and sent a letter to the Mayor today. Arthur Eisenberg, the legal director, cites a Supreme Court Case, Brandenburg v. Ohio, that set a precedent to protect the exhibit Ecko is hosting. The Ecko people have also determined that If they can't get the permit they plan on canceling the event. Mark Ecko mentioned "I don't condone illegal graffiti, but I don't condone censorship either." more ›

The two former NYPD detectives accused of being hitmen for the mafia were released yesterday on bail. Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa were released on $5 million bail each after months on jail; a Federal Court judge granted bail, saying the prosecution's case was "weak." The two man have repeatedly expressed their innocence. Eppolito showed off his house arrest ankle bracelet, making Gothamist wonder if mandals are standard 57 year-old man foot wear. He also told reporters, "I want Chinese food. I want pizza. I want a dish of macaroni. I want some salad. I want some broccoli." Ah, the diet of the accused! more ›

Here's the text of the ruling (PDF) and a schedule of some protests happening. The two protest groups, National Council of Arab Americans and Act Now Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER), would have had 75,000 total protesters; the big kahuna, United for Peace and Justice, with an estimated 250,000 protesters, will hear the judge's decision about their suit to protest on the Great Lawn today. Also, more about Kentucky bluegrass, the kind of grass in the Great Lawn, and Gothamist's previous Great Lawn posts.
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