The federal judge once responsible for granting the New York City Police Department far-reaching authority to surveil Muslim communities after 9/11 has now rejected a settlement stemming from two lawsuits against the city over that very surveillance, saying it did not include enough protections against police snooping.
In the January 2015 settlement, New York City agreed to install a “civilian representative” to help oversee the NYPD’s intelligence efforts. But in a ruling written on October 28, which was made public on Monday, Judge Charles Haight claimed that the settlement was insufficient, since the proposed representative wouldn’t have the power to “furnish sufficient protection from potential violations of the constitutional rights of those law-abiding Muslims and believers in Islam who live, move and have their being in this city.” ...