Footnote 7: (Gurian, A Return to Eyes on the Prize, 33 Fordham Urb LJ at 262.) This is consistent with statements and testimony of the Association of the Bar of the City of NY (letter dated Aug. 1, 2005), the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (July 8, 2005), and the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, Inc. (Apr. 14, 2005), all on file with the Committee on General Welfare and the NY Legislative Service, each confirming that the Council sought to have courts maximize civil rights protections. For example, the Bar Association, at page 4 of its letter, referred to "the Council's clear intent to provide the greatest possible protection for civil rights." At the Council's debate prior to passage, Council Member Palma described the Bar Association and Brennan Center statements as important to the Committee, and characterized the Anti-Discrimination Center's testimony as "an excellent guide to the intent and consequences of [the] legislation we pass today." (Transcript at 41.)
Footnote 8: We note in this context two cardinal rules of statutory construction: that legislative amendments are "deemed to have intended a material change in the law" (McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes § 193 [a]), and that "courts in construing a statute should consider the mischief sought to be remedied by the new legislation, and they should construe the act in question so as to suppress the evil and advance the remedy" (id. § 95). As such, we are not free to give force to one section of the law that has specifically been amended (e.g. Administrative Code § 8-107 [7]) and decline to give force to another (e.g. § 8-130). We must give force to all amendments, and not relegate any of them to window dressing.