Judge Orders State To Raise Pay for New York Judges

NEW YORK — A state judge in Manhattan is ordering Governor Paterson and the Legislature to start paying judges more money.

The decision, which is sure to provoke a constitutional showdown between the three branches of government, comes after years of disappointment and frustration by judges at the unwillingness of the state Assembly to provide them a raise.

Legislators in the Assembly have said they will give judges a raise at the same time they give themselves a raise. But first Governor Spitzer, and now Mr. Paterson, have been unwilling to raise legislative pay. Putting judicial salaries at the center of all that political dealing, Judge Lehner wrote, was "an unconstitutional interference upon the independence of the judiciary."

The defendants, who include Mr. Paterson as well as the state Assembly and state Senate have "unconstitutionally abused their power by depriving the judiciary of any increase in compensation for almost a decade," Judge Lehner wrote. "I direct, that the defendants, within 90 days of the date hereof, remedy such abuse by proceeding in good faith to adjust the compensation payable to members of the judiciary to reflect the increase in the cost of living since such pay was last adjusted in 1998, with an appropriate provision for retroactivity."

State judges currently make about $136,700.

The decision yesterday came in a lawsuit by four state judges who are each seeking $600,000, which, they claim is the amount of cost of living increases and interest to which they have been entitled over the years since the last pay raise. The judges who brought the suit are Susan Larabee, Michael Nenno, Patricia Nunez, and Geoffrey Wright.

Judge Lehner did not rule that the four individual judges should receive the payouts they are requesting. Nor did he explicitly order members of the Assembly or Senate to sign a pay raise bill. But the decision said that if Mr. Paterson and the Legislature fail to act that he will consider "other remedies." One such remedy would presumably be an order directing unattached state funds to be paid to the judges.

Judge Lehner is currently considering a nearly identical lawsuit brought by Chief Judge Kaye, seeking more pay on behalf of the entire state judiciary, which covers more than 1,100 state judges. The claims in that suit are similar.