Over the objections of lawyers for New York City, the opinion of a plaintiff's expert witness who refused to hand over data to the city on the basis of attorney-client privilege may be submitted in a suit brought by a transgender lesbian who claims her civil rights were violated during her arrest at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

In denying the city's request to preclude the testimony of Dean Spade, an assistant professor at Seattle University School of Law and a founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a civil rights organization, Southern District Magistrate Judge James Francis IV ruled last week that the information at issue was "plainly protected by the attorney-client privilege" and that the data sought by the city provided only a single basis for Mr. Spade's opinions.