Legal News

Judge Kaye Goes Big, Sues New York Over Judicial Pay

By Dan Slater

Over the Law Blog’s short lifetime, we’ve spilled serious pixels on the hemming and hawing over judicial pay. And we’ve also kept the LB art moderately-sized. But today, New York’s head judge, Judith Kaye — apparently fed up with all the talk — is going big, filing a suit on behalf of her comrades. We at LB headquarters are inspired by this news, so we, too, have decided to Go Big.

This morning, Judge Kaye reportedly said that she was going to file a suit on behalf of hundreds of judges. (Click here for a report from the Daily News’ Daily Politics blog, and here for a report from the NYT’s City Room blog.) The announcement, according to reports, follows yesterday’s news that the NY state Legislature passed a $121.7 billion budget without giving judges the funds for a pay raise.

This afternoon, Kaye followed through on her promise. According to the NYLJ, in a short message sent to state judges this afternoon, Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau said the latest refusal by the other two branches of government to give judges higher pay left the chief judge “with no choice but to take legal action.” (Here’s the complaint.)

A big suit needs a big lawyer. So who does NY’s top jurist turn to for representation? None other than former Clinton White House counsel and Wachtell partner, Bernard W. Nussbaum. When the Law Blog caught up with Nussbaum this afternoon, he confirmed that the suit had been filed. While we had Nussbaum on the phone, the Law Blog took the opportunity to ask him how he and Judge Kaye met. “We were journalists together, although I shouldn’t admit that,” said Nussbaum. Apparently, in 1958, Kaye was the editor-in chief of the Barnard Bulletin, while Nussbaum edited the Columbia Spectator.

Nussbaum says he’ll ask the court to expedite the claim and call Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno to the stand to have them explain why pay increase bills for judges have been held up.

Judges are currently paid $136,700 a year; a 2007 proposal called for a 21 percent raise to $165,200. In the most recent budget talks, there was reportedly some discussion that the legislature would establish a study commission to examine granting raises to judges as well as legislators, who have also gone a long time without a boost in pay. But the budget passed without any such action.

Photo: Associated Press

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).