Lt. Guv appointment sideshow
Remember way back when, last week, when Governor Paterson appointed a new Lieutenant Governor, the Republicans found a judge on Long Island to order it stopped, then the next day the Dems re-took control of the State Senate and it didn’t seem to matter as much any more… remember when all that happened?
At the time, this writer was taken to task in comments by a reader for “partisan hackery” in describing the Republican effort to find a sympathetic judge on Long Island. Turns out that The Bee isn’t the only one who smelled something afoot.. from New York Law Journal, a week ago:
… Supreme Court Justice Ute Wolff Lally (See Profile), the judge on call, issued a temporary restraining order against the appointment. She scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. this morning at which Republicans said they would request a permanent injunction to prevent the “interloper” Mr. Ravitch from taking office.
Justice Leonard Austin (See Profile), of the Appellate Division, Second Department, late yesterday afternoon lifted the stay but said the hearing would proceed before Justice William LaMarca (See Profile) on the merits of the governor’s action.
“Justice Austin’s ruling gives us a chance to make our argument that the governor was entitled constitutionally [to make the appointment] and that this case should never have been brought in Nassau County,” Kathleen M. Sullivan, a partner at Quinn Emanuel who represented Mr. Paterson, said yesterday at a news conference on the courthouse steps in Mineola.
Justice Lally, she said, “improvidently” signed off on the temporary restraining order, but she declined to speculate as to why the motion was brought in Nassau.
“It’s very interesting that anyone would drive through the night to file in Nassau County when there are perfectly good courts in Albany,” she said.
Democratic senators have accused their Republican rivals of judge shopping. Nassau is Mr. Skelos’ home county, and Justice Lally is a Republican.
This week, Justice LaMarca announced he is not ready to rule yet. Democrats urged him to either dimiss the case or move it upstate.
Paterson’s attorney Kathleen Sullivan urged LaMarca to either dismiss the case or transfer it to Albany County where the State Legislature does business.
Meanwhile, the new Lieutenant Governor (or is he?) was sworn in at a Brooklyn steakhouse.
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[...] One of the side effects of the Senate drama is the appointment of a LT Governor. sbr wrote a piece about the GOP efforts to block the appointment and was challenged in the comments - turns out he appears to be correct at least per this piece. [...]