New York City briefs

Justice: Ruling could

harm Jordan relations

The Justice Department has advised the Supreme Court that adverse rulings against Jordan's Arab Bank in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought by victims of Mideast terrorism in Brooklyn federal court could create foreign policy problems for the United States.

In the suit, the victims -- including some from Long Island -- allege that the bank provided financial services to terror groups. Arab Bank withheld records citing foreign bank secrecy laws, and as a sanction the trial judge said jurors would be allowed to infer from the withholding that the bank knowingly aided terror groups.

Arab Bank, the largest in the Mideast, has asked the Supreme Court to intervene. The U.S. solicitor general said in the brief that Jordan is an important ally, and the decision to override its bank secrecy laws in a private lawsuit could "undermine" U.S. law-enforcement and national-security interests.

NYPD to re-evaluate low-level pot busts

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton indicated Tuesday that the city is going to continue evaluating its policy on low-level marijuana possession arrests, which continue to decline.

"The administration, city government, the police department [are] continually reviewing policies, practice, procedures, as well as the laws," Bratton told reporters after a news conference about expanding a heroin antidote program.

Low-level marijuana possession arrests have dipped 6.8 percent through April 30 of this year compared with that period in 2013, according to the NYPD. However, figures from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services showed a drop of 8.5 percent for the first three months of 2014.

Marijuana arrests have been dropping after the NYPD in 2011 decided not to charge people who are asked to remove the drug from their pockets by police.