Monday, November 27, 2006
Spitzer to help shape court Experience, not party, likely deciding factors
AP Story Mark Johnson
"ALBANY -- Within a few months of taking office, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer will have a chance to help shape the state's highest court, a tribunal that has decided key spending and social issues for New Yorkers but that critics say has grown timid in recent years.
Two terms will come up for review and court watchers expect Spitzer, a Democrat, to make his choices based on legal experience, not political affiliation, to make the panel stronger. Albany Law School professor Vincent Bonventre said the seven-member court lost some of its stature after Republican Gov. George E. Pataki stacked it with judges who "seemed to be governed by ideology and politics."
"Albany Law School Professor Alicia Ouellette, a clerk at the court from 1994 to 1996, said that over the past decade the court has been much less willing to "take risks and create new law."
"I don't think the court is the leader it once was in state constitutional rights and tort cases as well," she said. "It has taken a much more conservative approach."
"Ouellette, who worked under Spitzer and Republican Dennis Vacco in the attorney general's office, said she expected Spitzer to pick appointees the same way he did employees in the attorney general's office.
"Everyone who works for him is of the highest ability and his choices don't have anything to do with political ideology," she said. "I think he'll use the same model to give some intellectual heft to the court."
On Day One everything changes...including our Courts and how judges are selected....the voters have spoken......it seems The Post wants Judge Kay to hang 'em up in their RETIRINGJUDGE KAYE editorial. andy
"ALBANY -- Within a few months of taking office, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer will have a chance to help shape the state's highest court, a tribunal that has decided key spending and social issues for New Yorkers but that critics say has grown timid in recent years.
Two terms will come up for review and court watchers expect Spitzer, a Democrat, to make his choices based on legal experience, not political affiliation, to make the panel stronger. Albany Law School professor Vincent Bonventre said the seven-member court lost some of its stature after Republican Gov. George E. Pataki stacked it with judges who "seemed to be governed by ideology and politics."
"Albany Law School Professor Alicia Ouellette, a clerk at the court from 1994 to 1996, said that over the past decade the court has been much less willing to "take risks and create new law."
"I don't think the court is the leader it once was in state constitutional rights and tort cases as well," she said. "It has taken a much more conservative approach."
"Ouellette, who worked under Spitzer and Republican Dennis Vacco in the attorney general's office, said she expected Spitzer to pick appointees the same way he did employees in the attorney general's office.
"Everyone who works for him is of the highest ability and his choices don't have anything to do with political ideology," she said. "I think he'll use the same model to give some intellectual heft to the court."
On Day One everything changes...including our Courts and how judges are selected....the voters have spoken......it seems The Post wants Judge Kay to hang 'em up in their RETIRINGJUDGE KAYE editorial. andy
