New York state ethics panel can resume its work for now but must stand down on Cuomo, court says

NEW YORK — New York state’s beleaguered ethics commission can continue its work for now, an appeals court said Tuesday, as it considers a challenge to a lower court ruling that sapped the power of the ethics body.

In a brief, unanimous order, the appellate court in Albany granted a stay that restored the power of the ethics panel and scheduled the appeal for next February’s term.

Last month, an Albany Supreme Court justice sided with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s arguments that the year-old ethics panel, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, was created in an unconstitutional manner. The state promptly appealed the decision.

Tuesday’s order marked a small step in a case that could ultimately reach the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. But the decision came as a welcome victory for the ethics commission.

The commission’s chairman, Frederick Davie, and its executive director, Sanford Berland, issued a joint statement saying the order would allow the panel to “continue its work and fulfill its mission as the appeal works its way through the judicial process.”

“We look forward to resolving this matter expeditiously,” they added.

The appeals court carved out one exception in its stay: The commission cannot pursue proceedings against Cuomo.

Justice Thomas Marcelle of Albany Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 11 that the ethics panel — created by Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature — violates the state Constitution by operating without sufficient oversight from the governor.

Marcelle wrote that the commission’s latitude to issue sanctions rendered it “more than a watchdog, it is an attack dog.”

Cuomo has engaged in a long-running legal effort to protect his COVID-19 book earnings from the ethics commission and its predecessor, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

Both the current and former ethics panels moved to penalize the disgraced former governor over his pandemic memoir. The book was published in October 2020, before a blizzard of sexual harassment allegations pushed Cuomo to resign.

A state Assembly report published in November 2021 said that Cuomo deployed state resources to produce the 320-page book, a claim he has disputed. Cuomo has also denied the sexual harassment allegations.

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