SEIZING AND BRUSHING ASIDE
A group of two dozen plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court that alleges an amendment to the City’s term limits law that allows Mayor Bloomberg and City Council members to stay in office for 12 years instead of eight is illegal. The New York Law Journal has the story. The plaintiffs include former Staten Island Borough President and Congressman Guy Molinari; Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. The suit says Bloomberg and the Council “seized upon the recent economic downturn to rush through with unprecedented speed the dismantling of the Old Term-Limits Law — brushing aside the sizable investments of personal, political, and financial capital that the voters expended in connection with Referenda ratifying a two-term limit, and thereby rendering meaningless the votes cast by City voters in connection with those Referenda.”

The city fire department is headed to court, attempting to settle a Justice Department lawsuit which alleges that department exams from 1999 and 2002 were unfairly biased against minorities. Judge Nicholas Garaufis told both sides to try and settle the case. According to the New York Daily News, a settlement could include the hiring of hundreds of applicants who took the flawed exam.

SWAN SONG
Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye will deliver her final State of the Judiciary report tomorrow, reports The Journal News. The address will be webcast from New York University.

TWICE IS NOT NICE
Edinburgh Town Court Judge Brian Kedik was arrested yesterday for driving while intoxicated, reports The Saratogian. Since its Kedik’s second offense within two years, he faces a felony DWI charge.

TRUMP IN TROUBLE?
No word yet on the judge handling a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump in Queens Supreme Court. The suit contends that a lending group led by Deutsche Bank should give him more time to pay off a $640-million construction loan on Trump International Hotel & Tower, his 92-story downtown skyscraper in Chicago. Crains New York has the story.