Browse Items (9 total)

Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke was a giant in his profession, in his community, in his family, with his friends and colleagues, and for all who came to know him. His passing is a great loss, an occasion of great sadness for all those he helped,…

In 1992, Judge Fritz Alexander retired. Governor Mario Cuomo’s decision on a replacement for Fritz Alexander could well decide the fate of a long and proud New York tradition of protecting fundamental rights and liberties regardless of the ebb and…

Independent state constitutionalism is a venerable tradition in New York. Safeguarding fundamental rights and liberties based on New York law–regardless of the federal law–is at least as old as the state’s highest tribunal. Currently, with William H.…

Judge Hancock was characterized by his colleagues as “a perfect gentleman.” If there is an essence that can be distilled from his body of judicial work, it is that commitment to decency in the law, to promoting fundamental fairness. That doctrine,…

Many scholars have recognized that divided decisions provide a window into a court’s inner sanctum. Divided decisions by a high tribunal reveal the dissenters’ and separate concurrers’ high principals and deeply held differences with the majority…

The inaugural State Constitutional Law Review triggered considerable reaction. Some in high places, including current and former members of the Court, were quite upset. They apparently took offense at the author’s observations that the Court under…

New York has a long and proud tradition of state constitutionalism. With state constitutional law enjoying a “renaissance” throughout the nation in response to the retrenchment in civil rights and liberties at the Supreme Court during the…

This tome is a must for Court of Appeals junkies. That being said, leafing through the pages quickly reveals that, notwithstanding the title, this is not a history. Rather, it is a survey of collected Court of Appeals decisions (from the 1932…

New York State’s intermediate appeals justices vary widely in their rates of success on review by the Court of Appeals. At one end, there are those justices whose votes and opinions, whether majority or dissent, are consistently ratified by the high…