The firm recently represented a variety of organizations and individuals on a pro bono basis in connection with MacWade v. Kelly, et al., 05 Civ. 6921 (RMB) (S.D.N.Y.), a case that has received widespread media attention. The case involved a challenge to the NYPD bag inspection program, which was instituted shortly after the July 2005 London underground bombings. Shortly after the program was instituted, five plaintiffs, represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union, challenged the program on Fourth Amendment grounds. The amici filed pre-trial and post-trial submissions in support of the program, arguing that there is a significant terrorism threat to urban mass transportation systems, that plaintiffs' proposed analysis, if accepted, would unduly hamper law enforcement efforts to combat terrorism, and that the NYPD's program was designed and is implemented in a constitutionally permissible manner.
In a 41-page ruling dated December 2, 2005, Judge Berman upheld the program.
The amici included the Washington Legal Foundation (public-interest law and policy organization based in Washington, D.C.), Families of September 11, Inc. (a nonprofit organization founded in October 2001 by families of those who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks), Rep. Peter T. King (chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security), Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (member of the House Committee on Homeland Security), New York State Senator Marty Golden (member of the New York Senate’s Committees on Veterans, Homeland Security, and Military Affairs), New York Assemblymen Vincent Ignizio and Matthew Mirones, Minority City Council Leader James Oddo, the Allied Educational Foundation (a non-profit charitable foundation founded in 1964), and Steven M. Flatow, (a resident of New Jersey whose daughter was killed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on a bus bombing whiles studying abroad in Israel through Brandeis University).
The amici were represented by Andy Frankel, Bryce Friedman and Seth Kruglak. Paralegal Alex Fiedler also provided valuable assistance.