Top French court: police illegally checked 3 minority men
PARIS — France’s highest court ruled for the first time Wednesday that police illegally checked the identification of three minority men based on racial profiling, a key source of tension between officers and youth in poor suburbs.
The Cour de Cassation set more specific rules for ID checks in France in a decision closely watched by activists who have long protested against what they call routine discrimination by officers against minorities, mainly black and Arab youth.
However, the court declared eight other contested ID checks were legal, as they were based on objective elements and therefore not discriminatory.
The judges didn’t decide on two other cases, returning them to lower courts for retrial.