Urban Justice Center v. Pataki

10 Misc. 3d 939
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 22, 2005
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 10 Misc. 3d 939 (Urban Justice Center v. Pataki) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Urban Justice Center v. Pataki, 10 Misc. 3d 939 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Jane S. Solomon, J.

Introduction

This lawsuit addresses important issues central to the health of New York State’s government. Studies and newspaper editorials describe New York’s Legislature as “dysfunctional,” and as the worst state legislature in the country. (See Brennan Center for Justice, The New York State Legislative Process: An Evaluation and Blueprint for Reform [appended as exhibit A to the complaint]; Bring Democracy to State Legislature, New York Daily News, Aug. 8, 2004 [editorial]; Albany’s Failures, Press & Sun-Bulletin [Binghamton], July 20, 2004 [editorial].) Any New Yorker would find this commentary disheartening, as do I. Plaintiffs maintain that the internal rules by which the Assembly and Senate operate permit the Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader too much discretion in managing legislation and allocating resources among the other legislators. Plaintiffs complain that the Speaker and Majority Leader wield the internal rules to bolster their political power and to stifle debate, all to the detriment of legislators in the minority parties and the state’s citizenry. Plaintiffs further complain that the Governor improperly puts his constitutionally granted ability to rush legislation under limited circumstances at the disposal of the Speaker and the Majority Leader, facilitating their aims at the expense of fair and open governance.

Changes to the rules of the Assembly and the Senate were sought last year, but few were enacted, leaving things substantially as they were. The plaintiff legislators, who are minority party members in each the Assembly and the Senate, now ask this court to help implement improvement in the way the Legislature and Governor do the State’s business. However, the judiciary’s power to intrude upon the internal affairs of the Legislature is limited, and consequently only three of plaintiffs’ 20 causes of action survive this order.

[942]*942This Motion

Defendants jointly move, pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1) and (7), for an order dismissing the complaint. As a threshold matter, defendants contend that none of the plaintiffs has standing to raise any of the causes of action that are alleged in the complaint, and that the complaint as a whole must be dismissed because it raises a political question, and because all defendants have legislative immunity under both the common law and the Speech or Debate Clause, found in article III, § 11 of the State Constitution.

Seeking to end their “exclusion from the legislative process,” and to “keep open the political process” (plaintiffs’ mem of law at 9, 10), plaintiffs bring this declaratory judgment action in order to democratize the ways in which each house of the Legislature conducts its business. Plaintiffs seek to reduce certain benefits that the members of the majority party in each house enjoy, certain aspects of the control that the members of the majority party in each house exercise over the legislative process, and certain aspects of the control that the head of the majority party in each house exercises over the members of his party. In effect, the complaint alleges that, in each house, the majority has leveraged its numerical superiority so as to squelch debate among the members of the house, so as to place a stranglehold on proposed bills that are not favored by the leadership of the house, and more generally, so as to prevent members of the minority parties from effectively representing their constituents.

It is a matter of public knowledge that many bills, including those pertaining to the state budget, are decided by negotiations among defendants Bruno, Silver, and Pataki, and that, not infrequently, bills are put up for a vote without having previously been made available to legislators with sufficient time for them to read, let alone to think about and debate. (See, e.g., Brennan Center for Justice, supra.)

Plaintiff Urban Justice Center (the Center) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that represents poor and homeless New Yorkers, including youth in the City’s foster care system. Plaintiff Kirwan is a Republican member of the Democrat-controlled Assembly. Plaintiff Krueger is a Democrat member of the Republican-controlled Senate. Defendant Bruno is the Majority Leader of the Senate. Defendant Silver is the Speaker of the Assembly.

[943]*943The Complaint

The complaint contains 20 causes of action. The first three allege that the Majority Leader and the Speaker make more funds and resources (such as office space, computers, travel reimbursements and printing and mailing costs for newsletters) available to members of the majority party in their respective houses than to members of the minority party who have equal responsibilities. The complaint alleges that this practice violates plaintiffs’ rights to the equal protection of the laws (count I), the free speech, association, and debate provisions of the federal and state constitutions (count II), and the gifts and loans provisions of article VII, § 8 of the State Constitution (count III). Plaintiffs have withdrawn that branch of their second cause of action that alleged that funding for minority members’ newsletters was conditioned on content restrictions.

Counts IV through VII allege that the Majority Leader and the Speaker violate these same provisions, as well as article VII, § 7 of the State Constitution, which provides that no money shall be paid out of the state treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law, by allocating funds for member-initiated projects in their districts (member items) in light of the political needs of the majority party in each house so as to maintain control thereof. For example, a member of the majority party facing potentially strong opposition may get more such funds than a member of the minority party who is facing similar potential opposition.

Counts VIII and IX allege, respectively, that plaintiffs’ equal protection rights and their free speech rights are violated by Senate and Assembly rules that severely restrict the availability of motions to discharge a bill from committee for consideration by the full house.

Counts X through XIII allege that, in each house, the majority party meets in caucus and decides on that party’s position on a bill, without any public record being made of the debate, or of the party members’ votes. The position taken by the majority of the caucus is then supported by all members thereof, with the result that cross-party alliances in support of a bill that is not favored by the Majority Leader or the Speaker cannot be made. Plaintiffs allege that this practice violates their equal protection rights (count X), their rights to free speech, association, and debate (count XI), their constituents’ right to know what positions their representatives took and whether they participated in the debate (count XII), and the Open Meetings Law (Public Officers Law § 100 et seq.) (count XIII).

[944]*944Article III, § 14 of the State Constitution requires that a bill must be on the members’ desks at least three legislative days prior to its final passage, “unless the governor . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
10 Misc. 3d 939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/urban-justice-center-v-pataki-nysupct-2005.