Supreme Court of New York

“ This question was also decided at the general term of the Supreme Court of New York, in the sixth district, in the said case of White, receiver, v. Haight; Justices Mason, Gray, and Balcom, concurring in the decision. ”

“ Men have learned to trust him, and to feel that his presence on the court helps to make liberty and property more secure. If he receives his party nomination, he is apt to secure a majority of votes, whether the others on the ticket are or are not elected. The opposing party often nominates him also, and sometimes, if his own gives the nomination to another, nominates him itself, and with success.
In New York it has been generally the case that a good judge of the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court is re-elected until he reaches the age limit set by the Constitution. ”

“ For example, each town (q.v.) —the territorial unit in New York—is required to elect justices of (q.v.) , who are empowered to hold courts and to exercise a limited criminal as well as civil jurisdiction. In each county a county court is provided for, and also a surrogate's court; although in some counties these courts are held by the same judge. Other local courts, with a limited jurisdiction, have been erected by the Legislature, especially in cities and large villages. The Supreme Court possesses a general jurisdiction in law and equity throughout the State. ”

“ It is alarming to find so many Members of Congress sworn into the Federal Court at its first sitting in New York. The question then is whether it is proper that Congress should consist of so large a proportion of Members who are sworn attomies in the Federal Courts ; or whether it is prudent to trust men to enact laws who are practising on them in another department. Let common sense answer. If Congress does consist of practising Attorneys, the laws enacted may, in a great measure, depend on the particular causes such individuals may have to manage in the Judiciary ”

“ Martin (1835) , Peter, alias Lewis Martin (1837) , and Prigg vs. Pennsylvania (1842) . The decisions reached in the first and last cases are of especial significance, because, in the first, the question of concurrent jurisdiction constituted the subject of main interest for the Supreme Court of New York, the court to which the case had been taken from an inferior tribunal ”

“ Most of the local or inferior courts, however, as well as the superior courts of law and of equity, were copied by State constitutions and statutes from English originals. In many of the States courts of chancery (q.v.) and of common law (q.v.) have been united into a single supreme court. It is impossible in this article to describe the judiciary system of each of the States, for in matters of detail they differ not a little; but a brief sketch of the New York courts will give the reader an idea of those existing in other States. ”

“ Fourthly, there is in every state a supreme court, which generally has no original jurisdiction, but only hears appeals from the decisions of the other courts. In New York there is a "supremest" court, styled the court of appeals, which has the power of revising sundry judgments of the supreme court; and there is something similar in New Jersey, Illinois, Kentucky, and Louisiana. ”

“ Opponents thus concluded that to include judges in the policy decisions inherent in the legislative process would be a “dangerous innovation,” one that would erode public confidence in their ability to perform their “proper official character.” 2 Farrand 75–76 (L. Martin) ; see also id., at 77 (“ [T] he Supreme Judiciary should have the confidence of the people. This will soon be lost, if they are employed in the task of remonstrating ag [ainst] popular measures of the Legislature”) .
The later history of the New York Council of Revision demonstrates the wisdom of the Framers’ decision. ”

“ What a parody today’s decision makes of Hamilton’s assurances to the people of New York: "The legislature not only commands the purse but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over . ”

“ It is conceded that at the time the viaduct was erected and until the act of 1918, under the practice of New York, the plaintiff in error had the right to a general review in the Supreme Court, a court of general jurisdiction, of the proceedings before the board of assessors until 1901 and of the board of revision of assessments until the amendment in 1918. ”

“ The only limitation upon the freedom of a State to define the jurisdiction of its own courts is that implied by Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution, whereby 'The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.' The Constitution does not require New York to give jurisdiction to its courts against its will. ”

“ When I was passing the building of the supreme court in New York City, on Madison Avenue, I read an inscription on one of the marble statues representing a judge with a book on either side of the door: "Every law not based on wisdom is a menace to the state." ”

“ Our resolution of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, in the context of the numerous statutes and cases which allow ideologically neutral, and generally applicable regulatory measures to be applied to publication, makes clear, however, that neither the interests of the publisher nor those of society necessarily preclude a damage award based on improper conduct which creates a false publication. It is the conduct element, therefore, on which we must principally focus if we are successfully to resolve the antithesis between civil libel actions and the freedom of speech and press. ”

“ Unsurprisingly, the Council was abolished, and New York’s 1821 Constitution placed the veto power solely in the Governor. Barry 248.
When courts apply the facial overbreadth doctrine, they function in a manner strikingly similar to the federal council of revision that the Framers rejected. The doctrine contemplates that courts can declare laws unconstitutional in the abstract without the law ever being applied against any individual in an unconstitutional manner. Along the way, courts must examine the sum total of the law’s application to people who are not parties to any proceeding ”

“ It is this neutrality the Court abandons today when it treats New York's coercive system as a program which merely 'encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities.' The abandonment is all the more dangerous to liberty because of the Court's legal exaltation of the orthodox and its derogation of unbelievers.
Under our system of religious freedom, people have gone to their religious sanctuaries not because they feared the law but because they loved their God. ”

“ These similarities and differences between libel actions involving persons who are public officials and libel actions involving those circumstanced as were Butts and Walker, viewed in light of the principles of liability which are of general applicability in our society, lead us to the conclusion that libel actions of the present kind cannot be left entirely to state libel laws, unlimited by any overriding constitutional safeguard, but that the rigorous federal requirements of New York Times are not the only appropriate accommodation of the conflicting interests at stake. ”

“ The resolution of the uncertainty in this area of libel actions requires, at bottom, some further exploration and clarification of the reat ionship between libel law and the freedom of speech and press, lest the New York Times rule become a talisman which gives the press constitutionally adequate protection only in a limited field, or, what would be equally unfortunate, one which goes far to immunize the press from having to make just reparation for the infliction of needless injury upon honor and reputation through false publication. ”

“ Does the Court's new rule allow the judge to decide voluntariness merely on a preponderance of the evidence? If so, this is a distinct disadvantage to the defendant. In fashioning its new constitutional rule, the Court should not leave this important question in doubt.
Finally, and even more important, the Court's new constitutional doctrine is, it seems to me, a strange one when we consider that both the United States Constitution and the New York Constitution (Art. I, § 2) establish trial by jury of criminal charges as a bedrock safeguard of the people's liberties. ”

“ The people of the United States have vested that power in this tribunal, and its highest duty is to exercise it with fidelity. The point of difficulty in this case is to decide, whether the legitimate exercise of this power has been obstructed by the judgment of the court of errors of New York, now under consideration. ”

“ Mr. Justice BLACK, dissenting.
I agree with the excellent opinion written by Chief Judge Fuld for a unanimous Court of Appeals, upholding the New York statute which this Court now holds unconstitutional as applied. ”