ALBANY – A Schenectady man’s lawyer argued in front of the state’s highest court Wednesday that a judge’s choice to rule on an appeal of his own lower court decision was an “abuse of discretion.”

“I’m asking this court … as the basic principles of fundamental due process that, in fact, this should not be a practice that should be allowed by law or by statute,” said Danielle Neroni Reilly, the attorney for appellant Brian Novak, who argues the county court judge should have recused himself.