In a blow to civil rights, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has blocked a judge’s landmark ruling about stop-and-frisk. In mid-August of this year, Judge Shira Scheindlin concluded that New York Police Department officers routinely violated the rights of people of color by using racial profiling to target people to be searched under the controversial program. 

The City of New York appealed, however–and today, Judge Scheindlin’s ruling was remanded, because appeals court found that Scheindlin "ran afoul of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges," by granting interviews about the case, and exposing her partiality. That means that Scheindlin’s off the case, her ruling–which included the implementation of an independent monitor to track reforms, and a pilot program for officers to wear lapel cameras–has been stayed, and a new district judge will be chosen at random. New oral arguments on the case are now expected in March of next year. 

You can read the Appeals Court’s decision for yourself in its three-page entirety.