New York appeals court upholds constitutionality of state ethics and lobbying commission News
Tyler A. McNeil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
New York appeals court upholds constitutionality of state ethics and lobbying commission

The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, upheld the constitutionality of the state’s Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government on Tuesday, in an action brought by former governor Andrew Cuomo, whom the commission is investigating.

Cuomo was involved in establishing an enforcement agency to implement the state’s ethics and lobbying laws to curb corruption. In pursuit of this goal, the state legislature created the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The governor had the power to appoint a fraction of the members to this body and designate a chairperson who would hold the position at the governor’s pleasure.

However, certain provisions invited public criticism of the body’s independence, such as the “minority veto” with which members could block investigations. In response, the state legislature amended the existing law through the Ethics Commissions Reforms Act, 2022 to constitute the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. The reform was aimed at making the body more transparent and accountable, and keeping it away from the direct control of the executive branch, in the form of the Governor.

The argument of the appellant before the court was that the Ethics Commissions Reforms Act is unconstitutional as it violates the separation of powers by conferring what should be executive power on the legislative branch. However, the court’s majority did not find this argument sufficient. It specifically held that “[t]he Act does not displace the Executive Branch to accomplish that goal; instead, it confers upon an independent agency power to enforce a narrow set of laws, thus mitigating the unique danger of self-regulation.” The court also noted that there is a level of flexibility which can be adopted with implementing the principle of Separation of Powers where it is part of “an effort to promote public confidence by limiting self-regulation of ethics and lobbying laws by government officials.”

A lower court previously sided with Cuomo in 2023. The former governor moved to challenge the ethics commissions’ creation after an investigation was launched into a memoir he wrote about the New York government’s response to COVID-19.

A spokesperson for the plaintiff has said that they will ask the appeals court to reconsider. The New York Court of Appeal is the highest court in the state.

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