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Court OKs Ravitch
September 22nd, 2009

The state’s highest court has ruled that Richard Ravitch’s appointment as lieutenant governor is legal after all. This makes Ravitch the first appointed lieutenant governor in state history and ends a legal battle that began this summer when Gov. David Paterson named Ravitch to the vacant post.

State Senate Republicans had claimed in court that Paterson lacked the constitutional authority to fill the vacancy and, in the ensuing months, lower courts had ruled in their favor. Today, though, Paterson got a victory.

In the 4-3 decision, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said, “The issue on this appeal is whether the governor of the state of New York has the authority to fill a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor by appointment. We now hold that he does.”

Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos, named as the plaintiff in the case, sharply disagreed with the court’s conclusion, saying it raised the prospect of a chain of unelected officials since Ravitch could theoretically become governor and appoint another unelected lieutenant governor who could then become governor and so on and so on.

“The court has given new power and authority to an unelected governor where no such power had existed under the State Constitution,” Skelos said, adding
“The court’s decision to allow the state’s highest offices to be filled with no accountability whatsoever to the public or to their elected representatives in the legislature, is dangerous to democracy.”

The post had been vacant since Paterson left it when Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned. But hardly anyone noticed until the June coup in the State Senate when the body split evenly between parties and had no lieutenant governor to break the impasse. Now, the Senate coup seems resolved with the Democrats back in control, but, as the Politicker observes, “With Democratic Senator Hiram Monserrate currently on trial, and with the general unpredictability that surrounds the state’s upper house, Ravitch’s appointment makes for a kind of partisan insurance.”

Three of the judges in the majority, including Lippman were appointed by Democratic governors. The fourth, Susan Read, was named to the court by former Republican Gov. George Pataki. All three dissenting judges were Pataki appointees.

By Gail Robinson on September 22, 2009, 11:29 am
In category: Albany, Gotham City, Governing, Law | No Comments »

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