Bill Text: NY S00425 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Exempts certain interested parties or people from civil arrest while going to, remaining at, or returning from the place of such court proceeding.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 36-0)
Status: (Passed) 2020-12-15 - signed chap.322 [S00425 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S00425-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 425--A 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE (Prefiled) January 9, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sens. HOYLMAN, BENJAMIN, BIAGGI, COMRIE, GIANARIS, GOUNARDES, JACKSON, KAPLAN, KAVANAGH, KRUEGER, LIU, MONTGOMERY, MYRIE, PARKER, PERSAUD, RAMOS, RIVERA, SALAZAR, SEPULVEDA, SERRANO, STAVISKY, THOMAS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit- tee AN ACT to amend the civil rights law and the judiciary law, in relation to protecting certain interested parties or people from civil arrest while going to, remaining at, or returning from the place of such court proceeding The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "protect 2 our courts act". 3 § 2. The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section 28 to 4 read as follows: 5 § 28. Civil arrest; certain locations. 1. A person duly and in good 6 faith attending a court proceeding in which such person is a party or 7 potential witness, or a family or household member is a party or poten- 8 tial witness, is privileged from civil arrest while going to, remaining 9 at, and returning from, the place of such court proceeding, unless such 10 civil arrest is supported by a judicial warrant or judicial order 11 authorizing such civil arrest. 12 2. It is a contempt of the court and false imprisonment for any person 13 to willfully violate subdivision one of this section, or an order of the 14 court issued pursuant to section four-a of the judiciary law, by execut- 15 ing an arrest prohibited by subdivision one of this section or section 16 four-a of the judiciary law, or willfully assisting an arrest prohibited 17 by subdivision one of this section or section four-a of the judiciary EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD05356-08-9S. 425--A 2 1 law; provided, however, that nothing in this subdivision shall affect 2 any right or defense of any person, police officer, peace officer or 3 public officer pursuant to article thirty-five of the penal law, or any 4 unified court system personnel acting lawfully pursuant to their duty to 5 maintain safety and order in the courts. 6 3. Regardless of whether a proceeding for contempt of the court pursu- 7 ant to subdivision two of this section has been initiated: 8 (a) a person described in subdivision one of this section may bring a 9 civil action for appropriate equitable and declaratory relief if such 10 person has reasonable cause to believe a violation of subdivision one of 11 this section, as described in subdivision two of this section, or a 12 violation of section four-a of the judiciary law, has occurred or may 13 occur; and 14 (b) the attorney general may bring a civil action in the name of the 15 people of the state of New York to obtain appropriate equitable and 16 declaratory relief if the attorney general has reasonable cause to 17 believe that a violation of subdivision one of this section, as 18 described in subdivision two of this section, or a violation of section 19 four-a of the judiciary law, has occurred or may occur. 20 4. In any successful action pursuant to subdivision three of this 21 section, a plaintiff or petitioner may recover costs and reasonable 22 attorney's fees. 23 5. Nothing in this section shall be construed to narrow, or in any way 24 lessen, any common law or other right or privilege of a person privi- 25 leged from arrest pursuant to this article or otherwise. 26 6. As used in this section: 27 (a) "civil arrest" shall mean an arrest that is not: 28 (i) for the sole or primary purpose of preparing the person subject to 29 such arrest for criminal prosecution, for an alleged violation of the 30 criminal law of: 31 (A) this state, or another state, for which a sentence of a term of 32 imprisonment is authorized by law; or 33 (B) the United States, for which a sentence of a term of imprisonment 34 is authorized by law, and for which federal law requires an initial 35 appearance before a federal judge, federal magistrate or other judicial 36 officer, pursuant to the federal rules of criminal procedure that govern 37 initial appearances; or 38 (ii) for contempt of the court in which the court proceeding is taking 39 place or will be taking place; 40 (b) "court proceeding" shall mean any appearance in a court of this 41 state before a judge or justice or judicial magistrate of this state 42 ordered or scheduled by such judge or justice or judicial magistrate, or 43 the filing of papers designed to initiate such an appearance before a 44 judge or justice or judicial magistrate of this state; 45 (c) "family or household member" shall have the same meaning as in 46 subdivision two of section four hundred fifty-nine-a of the social 47 services law; and 48 (d) "judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing such civil arrest" 49 means an arrest warrant or other judicial order, issued by a magistrate 50 sitting in the judicial branch of a local or state government or of the 51 federal government, authorizing a civil arrest and issued by the court 52 in which proceedings following such arrest will be heard and determined. 53 7. No action or proceeding may be commenced pursuant to this section 54 against the unified court system or any unified court system personnel 55 acting lawfully pursuant to their duty to maintain safety and order in 56 the courts.S. 425--A 3 1 § 3. The judiciary law is amended by adding a new section 4-a to read 2 as follows: 3 § 4-a. Certain powers of the courts regarding civil arrests. In order 4 to maintain access to the court and open judicial proceedings for all 5 persons in their individual capacity and to prevent interference with 6 the needs of judicial administration, a court has the power to issue 7 appropriate judicial orders to protect the privilege from civil arrest, 8 in accordance with article three of the civil rights law. 9 § 4. Subdivision 2 of section 212 of the judiciary law is amended by 10 adding a new paragraph (aa) to read as follows: 11 (aa) (i) In order to maintain access to the court and open judicial 12 proceedings for all persons in their individual capacity and to prevent 13 interference with the needs of judicial administration, consistent with 14 section twenty-eight of the civil rights law and section four-a of this 15 chapter, shall promulgate rules to ensure the following: 16 (A) any representative of a law enforcement agency who, while acting 17 in an official capacity, enters a New York state courthouse intending to 18 observe an individual or take an individual into custody shall identify 19 himself or herself to uniformed court personnel and state his or her 20 specific law enforcement purpose and the proposed enforcement action to 21 be taken; any such representative who has a warrant or order concerning 22 such intended arrest shall provide a copy of such warrant or order to 23 such court personnel; 24 (B) any such warrant or order concerning such intended enforcement 25 action shall be promptly reviewed by a judge or court attorney; 26 (C) information about any such proposed enforcement action shall be 27 transmitted to and reviewed by appropriate court system personnel, 28 including the judge presiding over any case involving the subject of 29 that enforcement action; 30 (D) except in extraordinary circumstances, no arrest may be made by a 31 representative of a law enforcement agency in a courtroom absent leave 32 of the court; 33 (E) no civil arrest shall be executed inside a New York state court- 34 house except pursuant to a judicial warrant or judicial order authoriz- 35 ing the arrest; 36 (F) an unusual occurrence report shall be filed by court system 37 personnel for every enforcement action taken inside the courthouse, 38 including the observation of court proceedings by a representative of a 39 law enforcement agency acting in such person's official capacity; and 40 (G) copies of all judicial warrants and judicial orders authorizing an 41 arrest and provided to court personnel pursuant to this paragraph and 42 the rules promulgated thereunder shall be maintained by the chief admin- 43 istrator in a central record repository, appropriately indexed or filed 44 alphabetically by name. 45 (ii) The chief administrator shall publish on the unified court system 46 website and provide to the governor, the speaker of the assembly and the 47 temporary president of the senate an annual report compiling statistics, 48 aggregated by county, setting forth the date each such judicial warrant 49 or judicial order was signed, the judge and court which issued such 50 judicial warrant or judicial order and the location of such court as 51 shown by such document, the date such judicial warrant or judicial order 52 was presented to counsel for the unified court system, a description of 53 the type of judicial warrant or judicial order and, to the extent known 54 to court personnel, whether or not an arrest occurred with respect to 55 such warrant and the date and specific location of such arrest.S. 425--A 4 1 § 5. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivi- 2 sion, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of 3 competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, 4 impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in 5 its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section 6 or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judg- 7 ment shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of 8 the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if such 9 invalid provisions had not been included herein. 10 § 6. This act shall take effect immediately.
