The New York Times reports the story of how a federal judge “went too far”:

Something about the cases seemed wrong. The lawsuits, scores of them, accused businesses of failing to provide proper access for disabled customers. Defendants who lost had to pay the plaintiff’s legal fees, and they piled up in case after case. Last year, a federal judge in Brooklyn, citing “troubling litigation tactics,” denied legal fees, based in part on an unusual step by his chambers. His staff members investigated the matter outside the courtroom.

Now a federal appeals court is saying he went too far.

The judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., sent staff members to visit several Brooklyn businesses that were sued by Mike Costello, a paraplegic man, and found that most if not all were never made more accessible to disabled people.

Continue reading the main story here.  The link will also get you to the summary order that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued last Tuesday.