Court Opinion

ID: 9457561
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:25:38.587684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:24.214152
License: Public Domain

BIGGS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
An examination of the record convinces me that the York police repeatedly violated the rights of members of the black commúnity. Whether the police did so by deliberate design is open to doubt but that a pattern of unlawfulness was demonstrated by them to York Negroes cannot be doubted by me.
The defendants attempted to demonstrate that because of changes in personnel of the ruling authorities of York the attitude of the police toward York blacks was altered so substantially as to render the case moot and injunctive relief unnecessary. I cannot deem the changes effected to be that significant: nor could the Attorney General of Pennsylvania in office during the actual period of the criticized police activity, as appears from the “Brief of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” filed by him herein as amicus curiae: nor could the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission which suggested vital changes in police procedures as set out in its “Investigatory Hearing Report” (attached to the brief of the Attorney General): nor could the “Brief for Amici Curiae, N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and the National Office for the Rights of the Indigent.”
*267While it is true that the successor Attorney General of Pennsylvania, successor by reason of a general election and a change in the Commonwealth’s governing political party, “withdrew” his predecessor’s brief, I in the light of all the circumstances cannot view this fact to be of great import.
I would reverse the judgment of the District Court and grant injunctive relief.
For the reasons stated, I must respectfully dissent.