Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

ACLU

ACLU

  • 26 Years Since the Board of Estimate's Demise

    bdb and cms

    The mayor, council members, & advocates (photo: William Alatriste)


    New York City politics might seem convoluted now, but for nearly a century the city was governed by the Board of Estimate, an eight-member body as opaque and sinister as it sounds. On March 22, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional. The subsequent revision to the City Charter created the political system we have today. Twenty-six years after the Court's decision, a few of the attorneys involved with this landmark case have

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