METAL WORK 
Southern District Judge Robert L. Carter has approved a $6.1 million settlement of a 37-year-old racial discrimination lawsuit filed by Hispanic sheet metal workers against the union Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers. As reported by The New York Times, the union had resisted multiple court orders over the years, but new leaders elected in 2006 chose to resolve the suit rather than continue fighting it. “This is a historic moment for the union,” said Riccardo Iaccarino, a lawyer for Local 28. “The union’s new business manager, Michael Belluzzi, has decided to work for the betterment of the union for all its members, minority and non-minority.” Until the late 1940s, Local 28 had a provision in its constitution that excluded nonwhites. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the current suit in 1971, when minority workers made up 3 percent of the union’s membership. The settlement compensates 156 black and Hispanic sheet metal workers for lost wages for the years 1984 to 1991. “We hope that these developments are an indication that, with the recent change in leadership, the union has decided, after many years of costly litigation, to work with the court and the plaintiffs in obeying the court orders,” said Spencer Lewis, the district director of the E.E.O.C.’s New York office.

CHECKING THE BOX 
Meanwhile, The Brooklyn Eagle reports that Eastern District Judge Edward Korman has recused himself from the Second Circuit panel hearing an appeal of a lawsuit that was dismissed against the eminent domain claims at the heart of the Atlantic Yards project. Korman heard oral arguments in the case in October, but announced his intention to recuse himself after it came to light that he received an Atlantic Yards promotional flyer and had checked the box on that flyer that indicated he supported the project. Taking Korman’s place is Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, who, interestingly, is the judge who normally appoints a replacement judge upon recusals — meaning in this case Jacobs appointed himself. Typically, if one judge recuses himself on such panels the remaining two judges hear the case and a replacement is only sought if there is a disagreement. Last week the attorney for the plaintiffs in the case filed a motion to reargue the appeal in front of the new panel, which the court is currently considering. Judge Jacobs will in all likelihood rule on the motion.

A DIFFERENT PATH 
From The New York Law Journal comes news that Governor Spitzer plans to appoint three Brooklyn Justices and one Queens Supreme Court Justice to vacancies on the Appellate Division, Second Department. The three Brooklyn choices are Justices Ariel E. Belen (the administrative judge in charge of civil cases in Brooklyn Supreme Court); Cheryl E. Chambers, who handles complex criminal trials as well as selected personal injury cases; and John M. Leventhal, who has presided over the nation's first domestic violence court since 1996. Justice Belen is Latino; Justice Chambers is black. The Queens judge is Randall T. Eng, the current administrative judge of the Supreme Court’s criminal term. He is the second Asian-American to have been appointed to the Appellate Division. (Justice Peter Tom of the First Department was the first.) The Law Journal points out that Spitzer’s minority and female appointments constitute a much different path than that of his predecessor, Governor Pataki. During his three terms in office, Pataki appointed only four minority judges and five women to the Appellate Division.

"HIT LIST" MEASURE EXTENDED 
Finally, Newsday reports that Eastern District Judge Nicholas Garaufis has extended the solitary confinement measure he imposed on imprisoned Bronx Bonanno crime captain Vincent Basciano. It's understandable. The judge’s name appeared on a “hit list” prepared by Basciano, along with those of Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres and three witnesses. Basciano says the alleged criminal activity was, in fact, part of a Santería ritual designed to get him good luck at his criminal trials. Perhaps bolstering that argument, Basciano's attorneys disclosed that two other lists had been found containing more than 20 names and a magical incantation. Yesterday, defense attorney Ephraim Savitt said he will ask Garaufis to reconsider the ruling.