Tilting the Scales of Justice

Tilting the Scales of Justice

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 flow of the U.S. Supreme Court.

That tradition is in jeopardy. The Court of Appeals has been backpedaling on rights and liberties for the last few years. In the current era of retrenchment, claims of constitutional right or liberty have less chance of success at the Court of Appeals than they formerly had. Unless the new appointee is particularly sympathetic to those claims, the Court will continue to retreat from its independent, rights-protective tradition.

Empire State Report

1992

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English

Vincent Martin Bonventre, Tilting the Scales of Justice, EMPIRE STATE REP., June 1992, at 21.