Dear COBA Members and Retirees;

Today was the date for oral arguments in our Appeal of the Federal District Court's dismissal of all Nassau County Union's Federal lawsuit against the NIFA Wage Freeze. 3rd VP Brian Doyle and I appeared with our Attorneys at the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in lower Manhattan.  

The 3 Police Unions and their Attys were also there. Our case was heard in front of a 3 Judge Appellate Panel. The proceeding was pretty intensive.

As a reminder, the case was dismissed in the lower court based on a determination that NIFA's wage freeze was an administrative and not legislative action, and as a result, the Wage Freeze was not a "law". The US Constitution requires there to be a law that nullifies a contract to create an unconstitutional action. The lower court ruled that the "Contracts Clause" of the Constitution couldn't have been violated by the wage freeze because the NIFA Act itself was the law and all the unions should have sued when that law was passed.

We argued today however to the appeals court that the lower court's conclusion only served as a means for the County to evade Constitutional review, because there was no "impairment" of our contracts when the NIFA Act was passed back in the year 2000. Only when the wage freeze was imposed 11 years later was there impact on the union's contracts.

At the conclusion of today's proceeding the court did not issue a decision but as per our Attorneys the decision should be expected somewhere from 30-60 days out. What is expected is that the Court can do a few things. They can rule in our favor, they can rule against us or they can rule that the Constitutional issue was not properly addressed in the lower Federal Court and kick it back to them for further proceedings directly related to the Constitutionality of the Wage Freeze. We'll keep you posted on events as they transpire.  

In Unity;

Brian Sullivan, COBA President