Facing the prospect of a budgetary showdown with Governor David A. Paterson, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has won support from the New York State Bar Association against what he called the governor’s “outrageous” criticism of the court system’s new spending proposal.
In his first speech to the state bar’s House of Delegates as chief judge, a feisty Judge Lippman on Friday defended the judiciary’s $2.7 billion spending plan, especially the $183.5 million increase from the current year that Mr. Paterson had blasted as “business as usual” in the face of crushing state fiscal and economic problems (NYLJ, Jan. 20).
