Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had a lot of issues with the majority's holding in the recent Centro v. Oyster Bay.


Judge Jacobs


NYLJ/Rick Kopstein

Jacobs stated up front in his dissent that he did not believe the two original plaintiffs had standing in the suit seeking to stop an ordinance in the Long Island town. The pair had sued, saying the ordinance unfairly restricted the First Amendment commercial rights of day laborers and those seeking to hire them. The lower court agreed, and the appellate court affirmed.

“… [T]he injunction entered by the district court is more broad than the First Amendment violation found can justify, and is obviously formulated to remedy harms that were not found and were in any event not inflicted on these plaintiffs,” Jacobs wrote. “The mess is unusually thick.”