Judges Shouldn’t Recuse Themselves In Pay-Raise Cases, Panel Says
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- May
- 12
The state Commission on Judicial Conduct released a report today that says the panel supports judges receiving a pay raise, but warned judges to not recuse themselves in cases brought to their courts by firms in which state lawmakers are employed.
There have been reports across the state of state judges recusing themselves from cases involving lawmakers’ firms in protest of not receiving a pay raise since 1999.
Protests aside, some judges said it would be inappropriate to hear cases involving lawmakers’ firms because judges are now suing the state Legislature for a pay raise.
Yet the Commission on Judicial Conduct disagreed, saying today that case law doesn’t indicate judges have the right to summarily refuse to hear such cases:
“It would benefit neither the judiciary nor their justifiable interest in a fair compensation package for the Commission to be constrained to consider complaints against judges alleged to have violated these or other sections of the Rules in connection with the salary issue.
“The Commission urges all parties with a role to play in this matter to do so responsibly, professionally and with the utmost sensitivity to promoting public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, the courts and the administration of justice.”
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 11:45 am by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
