| Virtual
Courtroom Closed to Press At NYC Gov
Request In Constitutional Violations Case
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 6 – When can a Federal
court proceeding, about
Constitutional rights and
involving the expenditure of
public funds, be closed to the
Press and public?
Well, in
the era of virtual telephone
proceedings amid the COVID
pandemic, at any time at all,
it seems.
On January
6 Inner City Press called in
to what was described as a
"status conference" on a case
in which a New York City
prisoner sued claiming he was
prohibited from exercising his
religion.
When asked
who had just joined the line,
Inner City Press identified
itself as always, and said it
would go on mute to not
disrupt anything.
But the NYC
Corporation Counsel Sharon
Vicky Sprayregen asked, Who
was that? She did not want
press coverage.
When (U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Magistrate) Judge Katharine H.
Parker came on the line, she
said that the Administration
was prepared to make a
settlement offer, but she had
thought this would be
confidential.
The Judge
asked Inner City Press to
disconnect.
To not be
disruptive, it prepared to do
so, but unmuted to say, It is
not listed as a settlement
conference. But by then, it
had been hung up on.
Should the
City government, with tax
payer funds, be confidentially
offering monetary settlements
to people whose rights it
violates?
The case
is Washington v. NYC
Department of Corrections et
al, 19-cv-5395 (Gardephe /
Parker)
***
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