Metro

Lead stop-frisk plaintiffs want Scheindlin back as judge

They want their favorite judge back on “stop-and-frisk.”

Lawyers representing the lead plaintiffs in the high-profile cases filed legal papers on Monday urging an appellate panel to reconsider its stunning Oct. 31 decision to boot Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin.

In removing Scheindlin, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals had found her impartiality “ran afoul” of judicial ethics when she advised lawyers to steer one case to her and gave media interviews in the midst of the nonjury trial over which she was presiding.

“The removal of Judge Scheindlin was done by a perfect storm of procedural irregularity,” said Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The appellate panel cast aspersions upon the professional conduct of one of the most respected members of the federal judiciary — and thus inappropriately cast doubt on her legal rulings — while itself taking an unprecedented step that no party requested, of which no party was notified, and without providing the parties an opportunity to be heard.”

The request to get Scheindlin reassigned back on the case comes two days after city lawyers asked the same Manhattan appeals court to throw out the judge’s ruling against the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk in the wake of her stunning removal.

If the Bloomberg administration succeeds before the end of the year, it would amount to an end-run around Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s pledge to drop the city’s pending appeal of Scheindlin’s rulings.

Scheindlin in August had ruled stop-and-frisk illegally targeted minorities, and ordered sweeping reforms, including appointment of an outside monitor to rein in the controversial crime-fighting tactic.

On Wednesday, five prominent lawyers from around the country — led by NYU law professor Burt Neuborne — filed papers seeking to reverse Scheindlin’s removal from the stop-and-frisk cases. That filing said Scheindlin’s disqualification “raises troubling issues,” in part because the appeals judges acted despite the fact that none of the “powerful litigants” involved sought her removal.

The lawyers also noted that Scheindlin never got a chance to defend herself before the appeals judges and “was completely blindsided” by their ruling.

A city Law Department source said the agency would file opposition papers on Wednesday in response to the plaintiff’s request to reinstate Scheindlin.