FROM 1894 TO 1925
For those of you who think 10 years is a long time to go without a pay raise, check out The New York Law Journal’s dispatch from Maron v. Silver, a suit brought by two State judges and a former judge trying to make the State use $69.5 million appropriated in the 2006-07 budget for judicial pay raises. Yesterday, a lawyer representing Governor David A. Paterson and the Comptroller's Office argued before the Court of Appeals that the Legislature had no Constitutional obligation to adjust judges’ pay — and cited two examples from the Nineteenth Century to prove it. From 1894 to 1925 State judges went without a raise, and judges on the Court of Appeals were prevented by law from receiving raises from 1846 to 1869. “So that means the Legislature could hold the Judiciary hostage for decades?” asked Justice Karen K. Peters. “It’s not ‘can’ they? They’ve done it in the past,” said the attorney, Richard H. Dolan. Acting Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. McNamara formerly dismissed all but one of the judges’ claims: that their lack of a pay raise has injured the independence of the judiciary.
 
CJC CENSURES TWO JUDGES
The Commission on Judicial Conduct has sanctioned two judges: Jewett Town Justice Rebecca McGowan and Cairo Town Justice Thomas W. Baldwin. Accepting a ‘stipulation’ from the Commission, McGowan agreed to resign and never again seek judicial office after allegations she gave special consideration to her brother-in-law and failed to recuse herself in five other cases involving a friend or family member. Baldwin, meanwhile, was admonished for “significant” delays in three actions filed in his court.

THE GLOVES ARE OFF
Two Brooklyn Civil Court candidates running neck and neck before the primary are trumpeting their outsider status from the Borough’s shady political institutions.

CHECK MATE?
Southern District Judge Denny Chin has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Samuel H. Sloan, a former  executive board member of the United States Chess Federation, which alleged that two competitors for his board seat posted obscene messages on the Internet using his name. According to Chin, the Communications Decency Act, under which Sloan sued, “is a criminal statute that prohibits the making of ‘obscene or harassing’ telecommunications, but creates no private right of action.” Neither of the accused had been charged with any crime.

JAGGER’S FIGHT
And Bianca Jagger’s eviction case was argued yesterday before the Court of Appeals. The case hinges on the definition of ‘primary residence’ under New York’s rent stabilization law.