Court of Appeals Names New State Recorder
William J. Hooks of Latham, N.Y. has been named to head the New York State Law Reporting Bureau in Albany. The appointment by the Court of Appeals makes him the 26th state reporter since the position was established in 1804. A native of Brooklyn, Mr. Hooks graduated from LeMoyne College and Albany Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1980. He joined the bureau in 1981 as a legal editor and was appointed assistant state reporter in 1990. He became the deputy state reporter last year and replaces state reporter Gary D. Spivey who retired Wednesday. The bureau, which employs 33 attorneys and support staff, is the largest official reporter of court decisions in the nation. It edits and prepares for publication all decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Appellate Division and selected rulings of the Appellate Term and trial courts. In 2008, the bureau published 18,601 opinions, memorandum decisions and abstracts, including 7,422 in electronic format only. In addition, it published 33,719 appellate motion decisions electronically. In all, 19 bound volumes were published.
Strip Search of School Girl Improper, High Court Says
Ruling in a case that struck a chord with families nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday said that the strip search of an Arizona middle school girl in pursuit of drugs in 2003 was a violation of her Fourth Amendment right against improper search and seizure. Eight justices—all but Justice Clarence Thomas—agreed the search at a public school was excessive. But the justices divided over whether the assistant principal who ordered the search should be held liable for the constitutional violation. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were the only justices who said the law on school searches was clear and that the school official should have known it was illegal and should be liable. The others agreed the official deserved immunity from suit. The strip-search ruling in Safford Unified School District v. Redding, 08-479, was announced by Justice David Souter and could be his last decision before retiring when the Court adjourns for the summer next Monday. The case received wide media attention, and was used as an illustration of the need to appoint more women to the U.S. Supreme Court. During oral argument in April, Justice Stephen Breyer and other male justices seemed to make light of the search, noting that students are in various states of undress in school locker rooms. In an unusual public comment about a pending case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg later told USA Today that her male colleagues “have never been a 13-year-old girl….It’s a very sensitive age for a girl. I didn’t think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood.” Justice Souter said that under the Court’s precedent on student searches in the 1985 case New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, the school was justified in conducting a limited search of the girl’s backpack and outer clothing. But requiring her to strip to her underwear and partly expose herself was excessive, Justice Souter said. Such searches, he said, are “so degrading” that some school districts have banned them “no matter what the facts may be.” — Tony Mauro
State Task Force to Study Police-on-police Shootings
Christopher Stone, a founding board member of the state Capital Defender Office and former director of the Vera Institute of Justice, will be chairman of a state task force that will study incidents in which police officers shoot other police officers, Governor David A. Paterson said yesterday. Mr. Stone is a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Zachary Carter of Dorsey & Whitney, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will be vice chairman of the task force. Mr. Paterson said the panel will focus in particular on shootings and other confrontations between off-duty and on-duty officers and between officers of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. It also will examine training techniques and recommend changes to reduce instances of police-on-police violence, according to the governor. The creation of the commission follows a Harlem incident in which a white undercover officer shot and killed an armed off-duty black officer who was chasing a man who had tried to break into the off-duty officer’s car. — Joel Stashenko
Albany Gridlock Continues
Governor David A. Paterson did not need a court order to get state senators to appear in the Senate chamber yesterday, but he could also not compel them to pass any of the bills he put before them. The 31 Democratic members convened briefly but did not have a quorum and they quickly ended their “session.” The 30 Republicans plus Democratic Senator Pedro Espada Jr. then filed into the chamber and did the same. “This is a crisis that needs to be redressed and it needs to be redressed now,” Mr. Paterson said afterward. The governor had threatened on Wednesday to get court authorization, if necessary, to use the state police to force senators to appear for yesterday’s special session, but senators on both sides did so voluntarily. While Republicans and Democrats said they were continuing to meet to try to negotiate their way out of the power struggle, little apparent progress was made. Mr. Paterson, meanwhile, said he would continue to call special sessions until members begin passing bills again or resolve the deadlock. He said he has directed the state treasurer to stop paying senators their per diem living and travel expenses. He also insisted he believes the senators’ pay can be withheld by the state comptroller’s office on the ground that since there is no one recognized leader in the Senate, no one is authorized to sign members’ pay vouchers. Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said he was studying the issue. — Joel Stashenko
Judge Says GM Can Tap $33.3 Billion in Financing
A bankruptcy judge ruled yesterday that General Motors Corp. can have access to its full $33.3 billion in bankruptcy financing. Southern District Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber gave final approval to the financing after he had given preliminary approval earlier this month for GM to use $15 billion of the total. The billions in U.S. and Canadian government financing is intended to keep the Detroit-based automaker going until it can sell its assets to a new company and emerge from Chapter 11. The next big GM hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 30, when Judge Gerber is expected to rule on final approval for the automaker’s planned §363 asset sale. — Associated Press
Appeals Court Narrows Claims Against Johnson
A Brooklyn appellate panel has dismissed six of eight claims in a tort action by three former employees against Sale Johnson, the former wife of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and the current wife of sportscaster Ahmad Rashad. The plaintiffs asserted eight causes of action, accusing Ms. Johnson of, among other things, hiring them to do secretarial work then requiring them to perform “very physical house cleaning work.” They also alleged that were not paid overtime and that they were forced to bring work home with them. One plaintiff claimed that she was not ever allowed to sit down during the work day, another asserted defamation, alleging that Ms. Johnson told her co-workers that she was fired for stealing. The unanimous panel allowed only two causes of action to go forward, the defamation claim and a claim of late payment of wages. Epifani v. Johnson, 5735/06, appears on page 34 of the print edition of today’s Law Journal. — Mark Fass