Gleeson Ruling Upheld
A state federal court of appeals just upheld Judge Gleeson's ruling that judicial conventions in New York are unconstitutional because they're controlled by party bosses. Gleeson's ruling came out earlier this year, but was set to go into affect next year pending this appeal.
As a reader, who passed on today's ruling, noted, "the defendants could always try to go next to the US Supreme Court."
A copy of the decision is here.
-- Azi Paybarah
This is one of the biggest blows to machine politics in a very long time, congrats to the Brennan Center and Jeremy Creelan.
Supreme Court will never take this case because the NY system is one of a kind. So are the Justices and wannabes looking at primaries on 9/11/07? Wanna bet? Suppose the Legislature makes a few adjustments to the conventions? Does CBID and the NYU Brennan Center then have to start from scratch?
Just finished reading all 82 pages - thanks for the link!
Besides being wonderful news, a very interesting sidelight concerns the person who wrote the decision. This is Judge Chester Straub, who is no ivory tower diletante but - as a former Assemblyman and State Senator - very much a product of the big bad Brooklyn machine. While he was a first rate and highly articulate legislator, Chet definately paid his dues to the organization, for example dutifully supporting Rooney against Eikenberry and Lowenstein. But he always seemed very uncomfortable in that role and, in I believe 1975, suddenly resigned his position and fell off the radar screen - actually, he moved to Connecticut. He must have done very well for himself, since very few people make it to the 2nd circuit. (Does anyone know how he got this appointment?)
In reading the opinion, you can really see that the author is fully familiar with the lay of the land and more than eager to blow it out of the water.
Great job, and the Supreme court will not get involved in this!
The decision, like Gleason's, is straight from the liberal playbook of relying on the courts to change things instead of to the people who are actually accountable to the voters: the legislature. Enough of this legislating from the bench. If judicial conventions are unconstitutional then logic would say that so are the national conventions every four years that nominate the Presidential candidates. Wait until Scalia, Alito et. al. get a hold of this political decision. Should be fun.