RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF A VISITOR SECURITY SCREENING 

PAVILION OUTSIDE THE MOYNIHAN COURTHOUSE IN THE 

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

 

This resolution was approved by the Board of the New York County Lawyers’ Association on May 14, 2012.

 

WHEREAS, the United States Cou1t for the Southern District of New York has unique security concerns and challenges because it is the district in which two terrorist attacks have occurred and a number of high-profile terrorism cases have been prosecuted; and

 

WHEREAS, the Southern District experiences 13,000 filings a year and 2,500 visitors a day; and

 

WHEREAS, the Southern District proposed in 2002 that a visitor security screening pavilion outside the Moynihan Courthouse be designed and such a design was prepared in 2009; and

 

WHEREAS, the federal funds to implement this project have not been provided; and

 

WHEREAS, the Task Force on Judicial Budget Cuts of the New York County Lawyers’ Association took special note of the security issue in its Preliminary Report on the Effect of Judicial Budget Cuts on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued in August 2011, received testimony on this issue at its public hearing conducted in December 2011, and again noted the importance of the security issue in its Public Hearing Report on the Effects of Judicial Budget Cuts on the New York State and Federal Courts issued in January 2012;

 

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the New York County Lawyers’ Association urges the federal government to provide adequate funding for the construction of a visitor security screening pavilion outside the Moynihan Courthouse and to expeditiously implement the construction project.