A federal judge has ruled that a jury should decide whether New York City unlawfully punished unionized FDNY first responders by restricting their work after they spoke publicly about working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first responders and their Union are represented by Walter Meginniss Jr. and Amelia Tuminaro of Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss LLP.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman issued a 106-page order finding that a jury should decide whether the City’s restrictions on the workers violated their First Amendment rights under federal law and their free speech rights under the New York State Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed in June 2020 by emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and their union Local 2507, alleges that the City restricted the first responders’ duties after they appeared in media reports during the early days of the pandemic. According to the workers, they remained on the payroll but were blocked from patient care, field assignments, and overtime.
Judge Liman determined that some of the workers’ speech was constitutionally protected and that a reasonable jury could find the restrictions discouraged union members from speaking out. He further explained that it will be up to jurors to decide whether the City would have imposed the same restrictions if the first responders had not engaged in protected speech.
The judge’s ruling sets the stage for a jury trial to determine if the city violated the free speech rights of frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic.
The case is Oren Barzilay et al. v. City of New York et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-04452, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.