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Filling the vacancy of Lieutenant Governor

Filling the vacancy of Lieutenant Governor
Article III, Section 9, New York State Constitution

With all of the discussions on whether it is possible to appoint an individual to the position of Lieutenant Governor, here is one additional possibility:

Article III, §9 of the State Constitution provides that ?A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business. Each house shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members; shall choose its own officers; and the senate shall choose a temporary president and the assembly shall choose a speaker" [emphasis supplied].

As the Constitution does not mandate that the Senate "choose" a member of the Senate to be its temporary president, it could be argued that an individual not a Senator could be so chosen by the Senate.

Perhaps this is "the way out" -- the Senate "chooses" a non-senator as its Temporary President "to perform the duties of the Lieutenant Governor," which avoids the court confrontation that would probably follow were the Governor to appoint an individual to the Lieutenant Governor vacancy.

Having the Senate choose a Temporary President, who may or may not be an incumbent Senator appears to be Constitutional, all the more so as that individual would exercise only a "casting vote."

N.B. A "casting vote" is a vote given to the presiding officer of a council or legislative body in order to resolve a deadlock and which can be exercised only when such a deadlock exists.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on July 08, 2009 (boomark / email).