NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court Thursday struck down New York Gov. David Paterson's appointment of a lieutenant governor, upholding a constitutional challenge brought by the state Senate's minority leader.
The appellate panel said Paterson's appointment of longtime government adviser Richard Ravitch was unlawful because no state law or constitutional provision allows a vacancy in that post to be filled by anything but an election.
The decision upheld a lower court's restraining order blocking Ravitch from serving as the state's second-highest executive.
The Democratic governor tapped Ravitch for the post on July 8 to break up a Senate leadership logjam and said state law allowed the appointment. Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos said the state constitution did not.
There was no immediate response to Thursday's ruling from Paterson, Skelos or state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who also had said the appointment would be unconstitutional and declined to represent the governor in the legal dispute.
New York's lieutenant governor has the power to preside over the Senate and cast tie-breaking votes — and fills in when the governor is out of state or unable to discharge his or her duties.
The post had been vacant since Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal in March 2008, making then-lieutenant governor Paterson chief executive.
The Supreme Court's Appellate Division noted that its word probably would not be the last: The ruling granted Paterson permission to take the case to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.
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