Politics on the Hudson

The state’s highest court ruled this morning that the state Legislature is wrong in tying judicial pay raises to legislative business, but stopped short of ordering higher salaries for the state’s 1,300 judges.

In the 5-to-1 ruling, the state Court of Appeals said lawmakers have for too long linked judicial pay raises to their own pay hikes and other legislative business, such as campaign-finance reform.

But since pay raises for the judiciary and the Legislature falls to lawmakers themselves, the seven-member court was unable to order immediate action. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who has spoken publicly for the need for a judicial pay raise, abstained from the case.

“Judicial compensation, when addressed by the Legislature in present and future budget deliberations cannot depend on unrelated policy initiatives or legislative compensation adjustments,” the ruling states.

“Of course, whether judicial compensation should be adjusted, and by how much, is within the province of the Legislature.”

The court ruled that the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches is aimed at preventing one branch of government from dominating or interfering with the functioning of another co-equal branch.

“We conclude that the independence of the judiciary is improperly jeopardized by the current judicial pay crisis and this constitutes a violation of the Separation of Powers Doctrine,” the ruling states.
The Legislature hasn’t adjusted judges’ pay or lawmakers’ pay since 1998, ranking New York near the bottom in the nation in terms of judicial compensation.

In three lawsuits, judges argued that the Legislature has violated the state Constitution by not providing pay raises. The pay for a Supreme Court judge is $136,700 a year.

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