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August 18, 2011
No Predicting 'Common Sense' Court Open to Dissenting Voices
New York Law Journal
by Joel Stashenko
A review of the unpredictable nature of the past year's decisions by New York State's highest court contains a reference to one of the previous year's very predictable decisions.
But none of the Court's cases in 2010-2011 produced the high-profile rulings of the previous year, when the judges ruled that landlords could not charge market-rate rents where they had accepted a city tax break; updated the definition of a "blighted" area to approve the seizure of private land for the controversial Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn; determined that the state's judges had been unconstitutionally denied a raise; and decided that the governor has the authority to fill a lieutenant governor vacancy.
Judge Lippman said in an interview that he was "very proud" of his Court's body of work over the past year.
"To me, it's a common-sense Court," Judge Lippman said.
NoLandGrab: Yeah, nothing says "common sense" like allowing "blight" to be defined as whatever a developer says it is. Very proud indeed.
Posted by eric at August 18, 2011 12:37 PM