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*For immediate release*
May 6, 2009
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Press contact:
Radhika Miller
202-232-1180 x203
202-491-1000 (cell)
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Oral Argument Scheduled in Lawsuit
Opposing D.C. Police Checkpoint Program
Friday, May 8 at 9:30 am
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
333 Constitution Ave. NW, 6th floor, Courtroom 20
before Chief Judge Sentelle and Circuit Judges Ginsburg and Rogers
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Oral argument for the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Metrpolitan Police Department's checkpoint program will take place this Friday, May 8 at 9:30 am in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
On behalf of D.C. residents, the Partnership for Civil Justice, a Washington DC-based civil rights and legal organization, is seeking to reverse a lower court ruling denying plaintiffs' Motion for a Preliminary Injunction to halt the program. The program, which was deployed last summer in D.C.'s Trinidad neighborhood, remains in force. D.C. Chief of Police has stated that she will not cease the program until "a judge orders me to stop."
The Appellate Brief's Statement of Case reads: "Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of the MPD’s so-called 'Neighborhood Safety Zone' checkpoint system program whereby police surround a neighborhood with barriers, stop all vehicles which seek to enter the neighborhood at perimeter checkpoints, require all drivers--including all residents who seek simply to drive to their homes--to submit to police questioning as to their intended activities and/or the identities of the persons whom they seek to visit (who may be then contacted, out of the blue, by police for 'verification'), evaluate the individual’s responses against a list of six criteria in order to detect or predict or profile who constitutes 'persons inclined towards committing acts of violence involving a motor vehicle,' and selectively bar individuals from being able to drive into or upon the public roadways of the targeted neighborhood based on this individualized prediction of possible future unspecified unlawful behavior or based on the failure of drivers to overcome a ban based on six arbitrary criteria."
Copies of the opening Appellate Brief can be read by clicking here. The initial Class Action Complaint, Mills, et al v. District of Columbia can be read by clicking here, and the Memorandum of Law in Support of a Preliminary Injunction can be read by clicking here.
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