The decision of the people of the state of New York to levy criminal charges against Clarence Norman should be seen as only the beginning of an effort to clean up politics in the city. As our Errol Louis wrote last year when this paper was barely a week old, a “toxic cloud of corruption is emanating from the city’s courthouses and wafting over New York.” Mr. Louis continued: “The main source of the legal pollution seems to be the tight control of judicial selection by the city’s political party organizations, which have turned the courts into veritable brothels of municipal patronage.” Mr. Norman was not indicted for selling judgeships yesterday, but a year and a half later, the Democratic boss of Brooklyn finds himself charged with grand larceny, misappropriating state funds, not reporting an in-kind campaign contribution of $7,000 worth of shopping bags purchased by a contributor for his campaign, and depositing a $5,000 check into his personal account that had been written to a campaign committee.

Prosecutors tell the Sun that yesterday’s indictments are just the tip of the iceberg. The judges the party has been installing on the bench wield tremendous power over the tens of thousands of civil cases that come them in the city’s courts every year. Billions of dollars are at stake for the city itself. In the three-year period from 1998 to 2000, more than 80,000 claims were filed against New York City, for everything from police brutality to sidewalk slip-and-falls to medical malpractice in city hospitals. The city paid out more than $1.2 billion, at trial or by settlement, to resolve these claims. The vast majority of them were handled by judges put in place by the party organizations.

Some in Mr. Norman’s camp have tried to insinuate race into District Attorney Hynes’s investigation at Brooklyn. But there is more on the line here than particular politicians and their careers. What is on trial is the rule of law. Many, even most, of these judges are worthy public servants. And Mr. Norman himself is under no obligation whatsoever to defend himself against these charges. The burden of proof lies entirely on the people. Mr. Norman is presumed innocent under the law, but in the political sense, there is a heavy burden on the Brooklyn machine. Prosecutors, as our Colin Miner and Jack Newfield reported yesterday, still plan long, hard looks at several players in the world of Brooklyn politics, including state Senator Carl Andrews, campaign consultant William Boone, and Norman confidante Jacqueline Ward, among others. The investigation unfolding and the trial to come will provide an early look into the soul of the city and provide an opportunity for the process of reform to begin.