State's chief judge sues for pay raises

ALBANY — As promised, New York's top judge has filed a lawsuit against the state's three top politicians over judicial pay.

Judge Judith S. Kaye, chief judge of the Court of Appeals, the state's highest tribunal, in a complaint filed Thursday in the state Supreme Court, New York County, seeks a trial, beginning on or about May 14, on the merits of pay raises for the state's judiciary.

Judges can now make up to $136,700 annually.

In the complaint, Judge Kaye names as defendants Gov. David A. Paterson, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, as well as the state of New York.

"The executive and legislative branches themselves have recognized that their failure to increase judicial salaries has created serious problems for our state," the complaint reads. "But rather than act they have insisted upon holding judicial pay increases hostage to unrelated issues all in violation of the state Constitution."

Judges in the north country have expressed their support for the lawsuit. The region's top judge sent a letter to Judge Kaye on Tuesday in support of the lawsuit, saying it "needs to be filed immediately and prosecuted aggressively."

Fifth Judicial District Administrative Judge James C. Tormey III, Syracuse, who oversees judges in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, said the Legislature's dealings with judges represent a "constitutional crisis."

"It has become abundantly clear to the judges in the Fifth Judicial District that the majority of legislators in both houses, as well as past governors and our present governor, have individually and collectively no regard for, nor respect for the judiciary as an institution and do not recognize the judiciary as a co-equal branch of government," Judge Tormey wrote.

In the complaint, Judge Kaye states that New York's judges have received only one pay increase, in 1999, over the past 14 years. This, she argues, forces judges to "face the demeaning situation in which they can expect to earn less than first-year associates at many of the state's law firms and significantly less than attorneys of comparable experience.

"They can expect to earn less than they could in private practice and less than many other officials and employees in state and local government, including counsel to New York state municipalities and agencies and deans of the state's public law schools, many of whom have received substantial pay increases in recent years," the complaint continues. "In some cases, New York state judges can even expect to earn less than non-judicial personnel who work in the courtrooms in which the judges preside."

Judge Tormey said the lawsuit is needed "to preserve our very existence."

"Their actions and inactions have achieved their purpose in causing our institution to become marginalized," he wrote. "It has fallen to us to defend and protect this grand co-equal branch of government from total irrelevance in our society and to restore the judiciary as a co-equal branch of government."

He wrote that Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau will be meeting Tuesday with all administrative judges to finalize a strategy for dealing with the Legislature and Gov. Patterson. He said all judges of the Fifth Judicial District have met on separate occasions within the past month with Judge Pfau and other top administrative judges to discuss the issues.

Judge Kaye asserts that the state's executive and legislative branches have failed to fulfill their constitutional obligation to provide the judicial branch with "adequate compensation."

"By linking judicial salaries to legislative salaries and other unrelated policies and political concerns they have permitted judicial salaries to fall to levels that cannot be defended," the complaint reads. "In so doing the executive and the legislature have abused their powers; they have violated the bedrock principle of the separation of powers which exalts the independence and equality of each branch; they threaten to seriously impair the functioning of the Judiciary as a separate independent co-equal branch of government; they have undermined a pillar of our form of government."

Judge Kaye, who filed the suit on behalf of all the judges in New York's unified court system, is being represented, on a pro bono basis, by Bernard W. Nussbaum, former counsel to President Bill Clinton.