A federal judge on Friday scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing for the first legal challenge against Mayor Eric Adams’ recent directive to start forcibly hospitalizing more people who appear to be severely mentally ill.
The motion for a temporary restraining order on the mayor’s plan, which he announced late last month, was filed in a Manhattan federal court Thursday morning by Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) and other attorneys. It was brought on behalf of plaintiffs including individuals like Justin Baerga and Steven Greene and advocacy groups such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness of NYC (NAMI-NYC) and Community Access.