Gov. Paterson’s selection Tuesday of Jonathan Lippman as chief judge of the Court of Appeals – the state’s highest judicial body – illustrates two undeniable truths about New York state politics:
* No good deed goes unpunished.
* Being in the good graces of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is always rewarding.
In picking Lippman, a presiding justice on the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court, Paterson passed over a more natural choice – Court of Appeals Associate Judge Theodore Jones.
That’s rather surprising: Going back more than a century, every chief judge on the Court of Appeals has first served as an associate judge.
So, why would Paterson go against precedent and, incidentally, miss the opportunity to select the state’s first African-American chief judge?
Well, Jones, a moderate, thoughtful jurist, did his career no favors when he crossed organized labor: He was the officiating judge on the Brooklyn Supreme Court when the Transport Workers Union launched its illegal Christmas-season strike in 2005.
Jones followed the spirit of law, enjoining the strike under the Taylor Law, fining the union millions and tossing TWU President Roger Toussaint in jail. (He also imposed smaller fines on two other unions that joined the transit workers in sympathy walkouts.)
After the strike, Jones removed the TWU’s automatic dues-checkoff, imposing a considerable financial burden on the union’s leadership.
Labor never forgets such humiliation – never mind that it was well-earned.
Lippman, meanwhile, had two things going for him.
One, as the state’s chief administrative judge from 1996 to 2007 and retired Chief Judge Judith Kaye’s handpicked administrator, he shares his patron-predecessor’s passion for judicial activism.
But, perhaps far more important, he was “recommended” by Silver – the top legislative servant to both unions and trial lawyers. Silver, as the speaker’s spokesman admitted recently, “grew up with Jonathan Lippman, and Lippman is an old friend.”
(Oddly, Paterson yesterday said he’d been unaware of the friendship before making the appointment, meaning that at best he’s shockingly inattentive – and, at worst, truth-challenged.)
As for Jones, an honest, hard-working judge who opted to uphold the law?
He never had a chance.