As the state legislature debated, and ultimately passed, on Tuesday evening a bill that would repeal a state law that for decades has kept secret police disciplinary records, a quickly circulated petition calling for the law's repeal continued to grab signatures—more than 2,150 by 7:30 p.m. Tuesday—from law students, faculty members and administrators found at all 15 law schools across New York State.

The petition, the brainchild of an 3rd-year law student at St. John's University School of Law, began circulating this past weekend. It gained momentum quickly, with signatures rolling in almost by the hour, said the law student, Jen Hopkins, in a phone interview late Tuesday afternoon.

The petition was sent as an email "blast" to all state assembly and senate members on Monday, said Hopkins. At that point it had nearly 2,000 signatures, she said. On Tuesday, the state legislature—beginning with the senate chamber, followed by the assembly—debated and ultimately passed a bill would repeal the law, although with stipulated carve-outs. They include allowing the release of police officers' medical histories and cellphone numbers.

The assembly's discussion of the bill began in the afternoon and lasted for hours Tuesday, and various groups had come out in support of the measure, such as the Legal Aid Society of New York. It said that lawmakers have "zero excuse" not to approve the repeal-bill.

The bill still has to be signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to become law. But Cuomo has promised to sign any legislation that reforms or repeals the law, which is known as 50-a for its number found in the state's Civil Rights Law. Police organizations have voiced strong opposition to any such legislation.

Hopkins said that she spent all night last Thursday working on the language of her petition, which argues that "New York has the most restrictive law in the country when it comes to transparency for police misconduct."

Pointing to the galvanizing and disturbing death of George Floyd in Minneapolis—which has set off nationwide protests the show no signs of stopping—Hopkins' petition says that "recent cases of police misconduct and the ongoing systemic lack of accountability make it clear that New York should join the majority of other states in increasing the transparency of police misconduct records."

The petition also contends that "only two other states in this country have statutes that exempt police officers from public records law," and that "our state should be leading the way on transparency instead of being at the back of the pack and behind the times."

The law schools, at the bottom of the petition, are listed in alphabetical order, starting with Albany Law School. The names flow on from there. About 15 lawyers, mostly public defenders and from advocacy groups, also signed on to it Tuesday, Hopkins said.

She said that last Thursday evening, at St. John's law school, about 300 students and faculty attended a forum spurred by the George Floyd protests and the systemic issue of law enforcement abuses. It was titled "No More Talking, What are We Going to Do."

"There is anger and passion right now, so I wanted to think of something that had an impact immediately," she said. When she offered up her petition idea to the forum, she said, some liked it but a professor said it would be very hard to get a petition written, circulated and signed by people at all 15 law schools in the state quickly.

"Once he [the professor] pretty much challenged me to do it, I accepted the challenge," she said. After writing the petition overnight and having it edited, she blasted a Google sheet with the petition to all of St. John's law school. Then she "spent the weekend," she said, getting the same sheet out to the other 14 schools.