CJA Homepage • Latest News •

December 21, 2024
"Another Voice: Ongoing legal challenge to Hochul not without merit"
Buffalo News (Opinion, Joseph T. Burns, Esq.)

January 7, 2025
"Albany ethics watchdog needs teeth:
Replace the current commission which is unconstitutional"
Daily News (editorial)

"We want a strong ethics enforcer for the state government,
so we hope that the state’s highest court throws out the weak body now in place,...
Reading the briefs and decisions it is very clear that the earlier ethics agency,
JCOPE, also had the exact same constitutional defect, as the governor appointed only six of its 14 members. ..."

January 7, 2025
“Andrew Cuomo Is Using the Conservative Playbook to Fight a State Ethics Probe”
Balls & Strikes (Steve Kennedy, Esq.)

"...Ultimately, the right's attacks on functioning government have provided unscrupulous actors with a script to undermine agency action. It is disappointing -- if not surprising -- to see a Democratic politican who once said 'I am the left,' and who wrote a book about 'leadership lessons,' try to take down the only independent ethics agency in his state to save his own ass." (underlining added)

January 7, 2025
"Can Cuomo convince New York's highest court to scrap state ethics commission"
City & State (Austin Jefferson)

"Good government organizations are hoping that the independent watchdog agency
survives this last-gasp appeal for the sake of government accountability...
Representatives from watchdog groups...have kept close tabs on courtroom proceedings in the case against COELIG,
seeing it as a defining moment for the future of ethics in New York politics...
'We want independent entitites that look out for the public's best interest and if, essentially,
the governor can't cede anything independent, then as you've heard, ethics enforcement is left up to the leaders,'
said Blair Horner, senior policy advisor at the New York Public Interest Research Group..."

January 7, 2025
"NY Ethics Board That Probed Cuomo Criticized by Top State Court"
Bloomberg (Beth Wong)
bwang@bloombergindustry.com

January 7, 2025
"New York ethics commissions pushes for overturning
Cuomo's challenge disbanding independent watchdog"
Courthouse News Service (Josh Russell)
newyork@courthousenews.com

January 7, 2025
"Court decision on Cuomo ethics commission under scrutiny, appeal"
Albany News 10 (Johan Sheridan) Rochester
& here

January 7, 2025
"Constitutionality of New York's ethics panel argued before state's top court"
AP (Michael Hill) KTAR-Arizona Independent Yahoo WRVO - Jan 8 WSKG -- Jan 8

"more independent setup...But Rachel Fauss of Reinvent Albany, who listened to arguments with other good-government advocates, said that a ruling agains the commission could upend ethics enforcement in New York. 'There would be no watchdog on the beat,' she said. 'We've had a history of...corrption scandals in this state, and all the bodies have been ill-equipped to handle them. And if this one -- this new body that's the most independent we've had yet -- is thrown out, I think it raises a big question about what the Legislature would come up with."

January 7, 2025
"Cuomo vs. state ethics commission goes to the Court of Appeals
with separation of powers under scrutiny"
Spectrum News (Jack Arpey)

"Good-government groups who have defended COELIG...said the current case is preventing ethics complaints from moving forward, and a ruling in Cuomo's favor would further plunge the state's ethics enforcement into an indefinite state of limbo.
Regardless of the outcome, Rick Schaffer, who wrote the amicus brief on behalf of the organizations, said they are pushing for even more independence for ethics enforcement...'That would include the possibility of having judges serve on an ethics commission..."

January 7, 2025
"NY's high court weighs constitutionality of state ethics panel"
Albany Times Union (Brendan Lyons)

Post Office Box 8101, White Plains, New York 10602Tel: (914) 421-1200e-mail: mail@judgewatch.org

Post Office Box 8101, White Plains, New York 10602
Tel: (914) 421-1200
e-mail: mail@judgewatch.org