LIBRARY
THE DYSFUNCTION & CORRUPTION
OF NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE:
Professor Eric Lane/Hofstra University School of Law
--
Eric J. Schmertz Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Public
Service;
Senior Fellow/Brennan Center for Justice & NYU School of Law:
"Albany's Travesty of Democracy" -- City
Journal 1997
"Lasting change will come about in Albany only when
reform becomes a standard election issue, like taxes, criminal justice,
and the schools. Voters will have to press candidates on their
willingness to turn the Legislature into a true representative body.
Editorial boards and interest groups will have to stake their
endorsements on a commitment to openness and deliberation. Today,
legislators' complicity in the Albany system costs them nothing.
Tomorrow, it should cost them their jobs."
Reports of the
Brennan Center for Justice (at NYU)
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/still_broken_new_york_state_legislative_reform_2008_update/
NYPIRG
-- analysis of 2014 legislative session
"The
Ultimate Injustice: When the Court Misstates the Facts"
Anthony D'Amato, 11 Cardozo Law Review, 1313 (1990)
"The
Judge's Role in the Enforcement of Ethics -- Fear and Learning in the
Profession"
John M. Levy, Santa Clara Law
Review: Vol. 22 (1982)
"Keeping
Up Appearances: A Process-Oriented Approach to Judicial Recusal"
Amanda Frost, 53 Kansas Law Review 531 (2005)
"Legal
Autopsies: Assessing the Performance of Judges and Lawyers Through the
Window of Leading Contract Cases"
Gerald Caplan, 73 Albany Law Review 1 (2009)
"Putting
the Mice in Charge of the Cheese: Why Federal Judges Cannot Always Be
Trusted to Police Themselves
and What Congress Can Do About It"
Lara A. Bazelon, 97 Kentucky Law Journal 439
"Recusal
and Recompense: Amending New York Recusal Law in Light of the Judicial
Pay Raise Controversy"
Jeffrey Fuit, 57 Buffalo Law Review 1597
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“A
single decision or judicial action, correct or not, which is
established to have been based on improper motives and not upon a
desire to do justice or to properly perform the duties of his
office, will justify a removal…” italics added by the
Appellate Division, First Department in
Matter of Capshaw, 258
A.D. 470, 485 (1st Dept 1940), quoting from
Matter of Droege, 129
A.D. 866 (1st Dept. 1909)
Matter
of Bolte, 97 A.D. 551
(1st Dept. 1904):
“A judicial officer may not be removed
for merely making an erroneous decision or ruling, but he may be
removed for willfully
making a wrong decision or an erroneous ruling, or for a reckless
exercise of his judicial functions without regard to the rights of
litigants, or for manifesting friendship or favoritism toward one
party or his attorney to the prejudice of another…” (at 568,
emphasis in the original).
“Favoritism in the performance of
judicial duties constitutes corruption as disastrous in its
consequence as if the judicial officer received and was moved by a
bribe.” (at 574).
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House Judiciary Committee -- Republican Majority Office
House Judiciary
Committee -- Democratic Minority Office
House Judiciary Committee: Impeachment Materials: US
District Court Judges Porteus & Kent
House Judiciary Committee: 2010 Estimate
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FEDERAL JUDICIAL PAY RAISE
SEE
CJA's May 13, 2008 Memo to Leaders of Congress
Judicial
Discipline-Federal
Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, "Judicial Security and
Independence", February 14, 2007
House Judiciary Committee Hearing, "Federal Judicial Compensation",
April 19, 2007
Building Honest Scholarship:
Evidence-Based Refutations to Increasing Federal Judicial Pay
Professor Scott Baker:
"A
raise that's hard to justify",
January 4, 2008, Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
"Should
We Pay Federal Circuit Judges More?",
Boston University Law Review, 2008
Michael J. Frank: "Judge
Not, Lest Ye Be Judged Unworthy of a Pay Raise: An Examination of the
Federal Judicial Salary 'Crisis'", Marquette Law Review (2003)
"Judicial Pay: A Chasm Far Worse than Realized, and Worsening", Roy
A. Schotland, 82 Ind. L.J. 1273-1283 (2007)
"Salary
Erosion and Federal Judicial Resignation", Scott Duke Kominers,
(2008)
Congressional Research Report for Congress, "Judicial Salary: Current
Issues and Options for Congress", updated January 10, 2008,
Kevin M. Scott, Analyst on the Federal Judiciary, Government & Finance
Division
*******************************************************************************************************************
FEDERAL JUDICIAL SELECTION/CONFIRMATION
"ASSEMBLY-LINE APPROVAL: A Common Cause Study of Senate Confirmation of
Federal Judges" (January 1986)
SEE: CJA's advocacy
based thereon, including:
CJA's August 14, 1996 fax
to Common Cause Lobbyist/Vice President Ed Davis
-- enclosing
CJA's August 13, 1996 letter
to Nan Aron/Alliance for Justice
CJA's August 19, 1996 letter
to Ed Davis -- "RE: Coalition for non-partisan reform"
-- enclosing
CJA's
June 28, 1996 letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Hatch
-- enclosing
CJA's
1992 Critique & Compendium of Exhibits & 3 Correspondence Compendia
CJA's July 10, 2001 letter
to
Ed Davis -- "RE: Coalition-Building and Collaboration on the
non-partisan issues of ensuring the integrity of the
processes of federal judicial selection and discipline"
-- mailing
CJA's July 3, 2001 letter to Senator Schumer & transmittal letters to recipients
CJA's July 17, 2001 letter
to Ed Davis
CJA's June 16, 2003 memo
-- "RE: Championing Basic Citizen Rights -- and the
Vital Importance of Citizen Participation in Federal Judicial Selection"
SEE:
Paper Trail
to Jail in "Disruption of Congress" case
CJA's
September 10, 2003 memo -- enclosing
CJA's September 10, 2003 letter to Constitution Project-Courts Initiative
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NEW YORK STATE JUDICIAL DISCIPLINE
"NOT
ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC", Report of
the New York State Comptroller, Edward Regan, 1989 -- with
his press release,
"COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT NEEDS OVERSIGHT" (December 7, 1989)
**
FOIL correspondence pertaining to Comptroller's
Report
**
CJA's advocacy based on Comptroller's Report, including:
CJA's
December 11, 2002 public comments and questions at the forum
sponsored by the New York State Bar Association & the Fund for Modern Courts, entitled,
"Judging the Judges: The New York State Commission on Judicial
Conduct"
TEST CASES - State (Commission)
CJA's
March 5, 2003 memo to NYS Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committee leaders
* * *
"...one of the obvious reasons
for establishing a permanent Commission on Judicial Conduct is to
elevate judicial performance by insuring tht the practices in the
various courts comply with the high standards required of judicial
officers." , Sardino v. State Commission on Judicial Conduct,
58 NY2d 286 (1983)
:"'the purpose of judicial disciplinary proceedings is 'not punishment
but the imposition of sanctions where necessary to safeguard the Bench
from unfit incumbents'" (Matter of Reeves 63 NY2d 105, 111,[]
quoting Matter of Waltemade, 37 NY2d [a], [111]).", Matter
of Esworthy, 77 NY2d 280, 283 (1991)
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NEW
YORK STATE JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
"Report
on the Continued Use of the Temporary Judicial Screening Committee",
Association of the Bar of the City of New York: Council on
Judicial Administration, February 7, 1997
SEE:
CJA's advocacy based thereon, including:
CJA's responding March 7, 1997 letter
to City Bar President Michael Cardozo -- "RE: Supplement to
City Bar's February 7, 1997 Report"
Ex. A-1: "On Choosing
Judges, Pataki Creates Problems", CJA's letter to editor, NYT, 11/16/96
Ex. A-2: "A Call for
Concerted Action", CJA's $1,648 paid ad, NYLJ, 11/20/96
Ex. B: CJA's June 11, 1996 letter to NYS Senators
Ex. C: CJA's June 12, 1996 letter to Michael Finnegan
Ex. D: City Bar program, "How to Become a Judge", 12/7/96
Ex. E-1: NYLJ item,
3/4/97
Ex. E-2: "Pataki Names
Panels For Judicial Screening", NYLJ, 3/6/97
Ex. F: CJA's February 10, 1997 letter to Alan Rothstein, City Bar Counsel
Ex. G: CJA's August 22, 1995 letter to John Feerick, Chairman/Fund for Modern Courts
Ex. H: CJA's May 6, 1996 letter to James McGuire
Ex. I-1: "Lawyers'
Attacks on Judges Risk Censure", by Cardozo, National Law Journal, 8/26/96
Ex. I-2: City Bar
program, "POLITICIANS ON JUDGES: Fair Criticism or Intimidation?", 10/7/96
CJA's
June 2, 1997 letter to Governor Pataki -- "RE: The public's right to basic
information and your unworthy appointment of Justice Nicholas
Colabella to the Appellate Division, First Department"
(indicated copies to all members of Gov's judicial screening
committees, NY bar associations, Fund for Modern
Courts, Common Cause, NYPIRG,
Citizens Union, Gannett, NYLJ, NYT)
Ex. A-1: Gov's press
release announcing members of state judicial screening committee & 3 jud.
appointments
Ex. A-2: "Colabella to
Appellate Division", NYLJ, 5/15/97
Ex. B: Executive Order #11: Temporary Judicial Screening Committee
Ex. C: Executive Order #10: Judicial Screening Committees
Ex. D: "On Choosing Judges, Pataki Creates Problems", CJA's letter to
editor, NYT, 11/16/96
Ex. E: "Pataki Names Panels for Judicial Screening", NYLJ, 3/6/97
Ex. F: Gov's classified ads of judicial vacancies
Ex. G: City Bar's Uniform Judicial Questionnaire
Ex. H: 3/24/92 front-page correction in NYLJ, with Doris Sassower's letter
to the editor
Ex. I-1: "Where Do You
Go When Judges Break the Law?", CJA's $16,770 op-ed ad, NYT, 10/26/94
Ex. I-2: Doris
Sassower's Director's Biography
Ex J-1: "Appellate
Selection Process Stirs Concern", NYLJ, 12/10/96
Ex. J-2: 12/16/96 item,
NYLJ
Ex. K: NY Judge Reviews (1997-8 edition)
CJA's June 12, 1997 memo to
indicated recipients of CJA's June 2, 1997 letter to Governor Pataki
-- "RE: Ensuring the public's right to basic information
about the Governor's judicial appointments process and protecting it
from unfit appointees"
"Report on Nomination and Confirmation of Court of Claims Judges",
Association of the Bar of the City of New York: Council on Judicial
Administration, December 1996
SEE:
CJA's advocacy based thereon, including:
CJA's
December 16, 2002 letter to NYS Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Senate Minority
Leader Martin Connor, & Senate Minority Leader-Elect David Paterson
INVENTORY
OF SUBSTANTIATING DOCUMENTS
--
CJA's
December 19, 2001
informational/FOIL request on judicial confirmations
"The
Frustration Of Family Court", March 24, 2000, New York Law
Journal, letter to the editor by Gerry M. Wendrovsky, Esq.
May 1, 2018 NYLJ -- Law Day Supplement
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