The New York City Council and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams filed a joint lawsuit to invalidate New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ emergency executive orders that suspend parts of Local Law 42, which bans solitary confinement in city jails. Cardozo School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic represents the #HALTsolitary Campaign & Jails Action Coalition. Clinic students Elisa Davila ’26 and Ciara Lavin ’26, along with Clinic Director Professor Betsy Ginsberg, are filing an amicus brief on their behalf. The organizations joined public defenders’ offices and the New York Civil Liberties Union as amici to the case. 

In December 2023, the City Council voted to ban solitary confinement in city jails, but Adams vetoed the bill. The Council overrode his veto, but the day before the law was to go into effect, Adams declared a state of emergency and issued an order that blocked parts of the law. He has since continued to extend the emergency order. 

The clinic’s brief details the more-than 12-year democratic process that was led by coalitions, including people who lived through solitary confinement and others who lost loved ones due to the practice. 

"The brief argues that the Mayor’s Emergency Orders strip the public of meaningful participation in the democratic processes of New York City. Members of the public and their elected representatives engaged in a robust political debate over the course of more than twelve years that resulted in the enactment of Local Law 42. The Mayor’s use of his executive power to block the implementation of a law that was passed by a supermajority of the City Council is undemocratic and unlawful,” Ginsberg said. 

The #HALTsolitary Campaign is a statewide campaign that seeks to end solitary for all people throughout New York and the country, while promoting humane and effective alternatives. The Jails Action Coalition is made up of activists that includes people who are formerly incarcerated or currently incarcerated, family and community members working to promote human rights, dignity and safety for people in New York City jails. 

Both Juan Méndez, a United Nations expert, and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) issued statements about solitary confinement in 2011 and 2016 respectively. 

Méndez said solitary confinement should be banned as a punishment, as it may be comparable to torture. 

The NCCHC states that solitary confinement lasting more than 15 consecutive days is “cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, and harmful to an individual’s health.” It also noted that juveniles, those suffering from mental illness and pregnant people should be excluded from any solitary confinement. 

This is not the first time Cardozo has gotten involved in a solitary confinement case. 

Professor Ginsberg and the Civil Rights Clinic filed a lawsuit that brought an end to the practice of indefinite 23-hour solitary confinement for all incarcerated people serving death sentences in Louisiana, bringing to an end decades of life in solitary for many individuals housed on Death Row. Professor Alex Reinert served as co-counsel with lawyers from Cuti Hecker Wang LLP in April 2023, which brought about a historic $53 million settlement in Miller v. City of New York. The 4,413 people held in isolated conditions at Rikers Island and Manhattan jails between 2018 and 2022 were entitled to a payment averaging $9,000. 

“Prisons and jails here in New York and around the country have relied heavily on solitary confinement, causing tremendous physical and mental trauma and sometimes death to those subject to the cruel practice,” Ginsberg said. “It is critical that more lawmakers and politicians follow the lead of the New York City Council and Public Advocate by taking a stand to end solitary.”