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This presentation was delivered at the 40th Anniversary of the Taylor Law Conference sponsored by the NYS Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in Albany in May 2008. The presentation dealt with the New York Court of Appeals' approach to public sector labor law. Professor Vincent M. Bonventre identified patterns and trends in the decisions of the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, over the fifteen year period during which Judith S. Kaye has served as Chief Judge. A review of those decisions is revealing. Overall patterns for the fifteen years, as well as recent trends, emerge from the court's rulings when reviewed in light of certain considerations: unanimous versus divided decisions, pro-employee versus pro-management ones, pro versus con-collective bargaining rulings, decisions in which public policy was deemed to prohibit versus permit collective bargaining or arbitration or certain terms or conditions of employment. All of the foregoing is illustrated in graphs that underscore these contrasts in the cases collectively, as well as highlight the recent trends suggesting a pro-management change in the court's direction.

This is the October 16, 2008 presentation at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York by Professor Vincent M. Bonventre. It is the latest update of previous years' presentations, with some substantive additions. It explores the ideological dynamics within the court from the latter years of the chief judgeship of Sol Wachtler through the tenure of Chief Judge Judith Kaye up to spring 2008. It looks at the individual judges and the patterns in their voting records and in the decisional record of the court as a whole. It concentrates on divided criminal law cases which tend to be highly sensitive to ideological leanings. It also considers the patterns in public labor law cases and in the frequency of written dissents. The presentation also outlines and critiques the process for merit selection of the judges, and the evolution of the court through the gubernatorial appointments of Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, and Eliot Spitzer. The result today is a somewhat less conservative, less law and order court, despite the remaining majority of appointees by Republican Pataki. The difference may be the newest appointment to the court by now-former Governor Spitzer. Finally, the presentation looks at decisions over the past several years in which the court has delineated the powers of the separate branches of New York State government, of state agencies, state officials, and municipalities.

This is one of the more recent presentations among several delivered over the past few years at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York by Professor Vincent M. Bonventre on the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. This presentation explores the ideological composition of the court through an analysis of the judges' voting patterns in criminal law decisions. It then examines and critiques the merit selection process through which governors make appointments to the court. Finally, the presentation details the making of the current court through the gubernatorial appointments of Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, and Eliot Spitzer. The result is a more conservative, law and order court, with Republican Pataki appointees now constituting a majority, and liberal Democratic Cuomo appointees constituting a shrinking minority.