Take that, NYCLU.
A federal appeals court yesterday found in favor of protecting both the identities of undercover cops and the investigative methods they use to keep New York City safe.
Back in 2007, federal Judge Richard Sullivan ordered the NYPD to turn over 1,800 pages of confidential field reports to protesters at the 2004 Republican convention here, many of whom were arrested and detained.
The NYCLU, which (naturally) represented the demonstrators, hailed Sullivan’s move. But a three-judge appeals panel found that his ruling “contained legal errors of such significance that it constituted a clear and indisputable abuse of [judicial] discretion.”
Which means that the NYPD can keep its sensitive information secret.
The NYCLU sought the sealed documents in hopes of impeaching city claims that demonstrators posed a very real security threat before the convention — and thus warranted active surveillance.
But the judges found that the material actually “reinforce[d] the city’s assertion that the public faced a substantial threat of disruption and violence” during the convention.
Moreover, turning over the papers could easily lead to identifying undercover cops — which would both endanger them and “likely provide additional information about how the NYPD infiltrates organizations, thereby impeding future investigations.”
Which is probably what the plaintiffs had in mind all along.
Nearly a million demonstrators poured into New York that summer, intent on protesting the convention. Most were merely expressing their legitimate First Amendment rights. But anarchists and other troublemakers had gotten violent at numerous political gatherings prior to the convention.
That the NYPD managed to keep the city safe is a tribute to Commissioner Ray Kelly and a department that is rightly known as New York’s Finest.
This ruling will help ensure that such occurrences remain the rule.