NYMP Laws & Orders #7: Judge Rejects WOC4EJ Amended Complaint, NYFRL Lawyers Argue Over "Problem Codes"

A federal judge nixed the extensive fourth amended complaint in Women of Color for Equal Justice v. NYC, while some (much shorter) filings deepened the "problem code" dispute in NYFRL v. NYC.

Amended complaint is rejected by judge in WOC4EJ v. NYC.

UPDATE:

In an order issued on February 23, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted a motion by attorney Jo Saint-George to vacate the February 14 order described below. The February 23 order reinstates the Fourth Amended Complaint as the operative complaint.

In the last issue of Laws & Orders, I reported on attorney Jo Saint-George’s filing of a fourth amended complaint in Women of Color for Equal Justice et al. v. The City of New York et al. This week, federal district court judge Eric Komitee issued an order rejecting the filing as untimely and restoring the third amended complaint as the operative complaint.

The 71-page fourth amended complaint included a new claim of fraud and was filed along with 59 supporting exhibits. But Saint-George filed the documents after the court-designated deadline, pointing to a series of administrative mixups for causing the delay. The judge quoted United States v. Locke in his order, writing, “filing deadline cannot be complied with, substantially or otherwise, by filing late—even by one day.”

Judge Komitee took his own time in issuing the order, however—enough for the City attorneys to file a motion to dismiss against the fourth amended complaint and for Saint-George to file a response opposing the motion.

There’s not much point in getting into the details of what was in those documents, though, since the fourth amended complaint and all of the documents that went along with it are now off the table. We’ll see how things proceed with the third amended complaint.

City lawyers confirm use of HR code to track unvaccinated teachers under mandate, but dispute “problem code” blacklisting.

It’s been over a year since attorney John Bursch made oral arguments before the U.S. Southern District Court of Appeals in New Yorkers For Religious Liberty v. The City of New York, and there’s still no decision from the court.

But there have been some interesting additions to the documents for the case in the interim. On the recent anniversary of the February 8, 2023, hearing, Bursch filed a letter to press the court for a decision and bolster the argument that the City is