MANHATTAN — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that it was unconstitutional to keep the public out of hearings concerning minor crimes on the city's subways and buses.
The decision by Judge Richard Sullivan came after a lawsuit was brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union against NYC Transit. For more than 20 years, the agency blocked members of the public from attending nearly 20,000 Transit Adjudication Board hearings per year.
The Transit Adjudication Board, which is run by NYC Transit, handles low-level crimes including littering, smoking, moving between subway cars or drinking from open containers, the New York Times reports.
The hearings had been closed at the request of the defendants who could also opt to hold the trials in the city's criminal court, the Times said.
Judge Sullivan ruled that closing the hearings was a violation of the First Amendment.
