Pataki Appoints 5th Republican to NY'S Highest Ct. (majority until 2014)

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Pataki Appoints Fifth Republican to Highest Court
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: August 19, 2006

ALBANY, Aug. 18 — Gov. George E. Pataki nominated an upstate Republican on Friday to be his fifth appointee on the seven-member Court of Appeals, moving to assure that his imprint on the state’s highest court will last long into the next governor’s term.

The governor appointed Eugene F. Pigott Jr., the presiding justice of the appellate division in Buffalo, to fill the seat that is being vacated by Judge George Bundy Smith, whose 14-year term ends next month. Judge Smith had applied to be reappointed to a second term, but several legal experts said that his prospects were harmed because of the decision he wrote in 2004 striking down the state’s death penalty, angering the governor.

The departure of Judge Smith, who is black, will leave the state’s highest court without a black judge for the first time in more than two decades....

***

By selecting Justice Pigott, a fellow Republican, Mr. Pataki continued his efforts to shift the court further to the right and away from what he railed against as an activist cast in his early years as governor. Since early in his first term, the governor has complained that the court’s decisions hampered law enforcement efforts, and in his nearly 12 years as governor, he has broken with the tradition of naming appointees from both parties to the highest court, choosing only Republicans.

With this appointment, coming just months before he leaves office, Mr. Pataki’s legacy on the court could extend past the term of the next governor. Whoever takes office as the next governor in January will get to choose three new appointees to the seven-member court within about a year. But barring unforeseen events, Mr. Pataki’s appointees will continue to make up a four-member majority on the court until the end of 2014, when the terms of two Pataki appointees will come to an end....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/nyregion/19judge.html?hp&ex=1155960000&en=62241aa7432fd6fe&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[GrumpyGreg]

1. This is a surprise??????

[buff2]

2. What a slimeball

Those idiot repukes are hellbent on keeping this country phucked up aren't they? :argh:

[w4rma]

3. If Democrats in the state are smart they'll stall until a new governor

is elected and let the new governor make the appointment.

They'll definitely regret it if they don't. Almost 10 years is a very long time to get their laws shut down.

[KoKo]

4. It's all over the country. Look at the NorthEast which is solidly blue...

but for some reason keeps electing people who are not. So where is the Blue? Maybe in fantasy.