This year’s city elections are supposed to be the means for voters to decide the city’s direction. But local judges seem bent on doing it for us.
The latest outrage: A decision by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes that all but prevents failing hospitals in New York from closing. No matter how much of a danger they are to patients.
Baynes was ruling on a case meant to block Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital from shutting. The judge found a state Department of Health regulation — requiring an OK from its commissioner before a hospital can close — “unconstitutionally vague.” Presumably, this means hospital could get valid permission to close.
Never mind that Long Island College Hospital doesn’t have the resources to provide patients with quality care. Or that it’s been hemorrhaging millions. Or that several reports have cited scores of empty beds at hospitals elsewhere in New York.
No matter. Baynes and fellow Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Demarest have effectively made themselves the city’s health commissioner. They’ve done so with bizarre, costly, even dangerous rulings — such as mandates that the hospital accept ambulances, even if it might not have the staff to handle them.
That’s a familiar tale in this judge-happy town. Over at the Fire Department, Judge Nicholas Garaufis has been busy acting as commissioner. His colleague on the federal bench, Shira Scheindlin, is doing the same with the NYPD.
If this is the way it’s going to be, why not spare the city the hassle and expense of elections and let the courts divide up city posts? At least then we’d know whom we should hold responsible.