Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo scored another win in his efforts to unravel the state’s new ethics commission, as part of an ongoing spat over his pandemic-era book deal.
A mid-level appellate court upheld a lower court judge’s decision to scrap the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, COELIG, which had ordered the ex-gov to fork over proceeds from his pandemic era memoir.
“The Legislature, though well-intentioned in its actions, violated the bedrock principles of separation of powers,” the five-judge panel wrote in its unanimous ruling.
The former Governor, who stepped down in 2021 amid a wave of sexual harassment and ethics accusations that he denies, cheered Thursday’s ruling.
“This has been a three-year exercise to bend the law to fit the political will of those in charge and hopefully after this second – and unanimous – court decision, this partisan and baseless prosecution will finally end,” a spokesperson for Cuomo wrote in a statement.
“As we’ve said from the very beginning, no one is above the law nor the constitution,” he added.
The decision means Cuomo will still get to hold onto the $5 million in profits from his book deal.
The decision could also likely be the end for the short-lived ethics panel, which was created in 2021 to replace the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE. Its predecessor was widely criticized for lacking independence given that most of its appointees were beholden to the Governor.
“We respectfully disagree with the result reached by the court and are reviewing all options, including, if appropriate, recommending interim legislation,” COELIG’s Chairman Frederick Davie and Executive Director Sanford Berland wrote in a joint statement.
They added that the panel will try to appeal the decision, though that first requires permission of the appellate court given that its ruling was unanimous.
Since the appellate division’s decision is unanimous, the state will have to seek permission from the same panel to appeal to the state’s highest court.
The attorney general’s office is reviewing the decision.
Cuomo first filed his lawsuit last year, in part seeking to unravel COELIG’s effort to force him to turn over proceeds from his pandemic-era memoir, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic. JCOPE had
The courts sided with Cuomo’s argument that the process for appointing members of COELIG unfairly removes checks and balances from the executive branch. Nominations for the panel are made by the governor, attorney general, comptroller and both houses of the legislature before they’re reviewed by deans of New York’s law schools.
The judges write in their decision that the deans make up “an external nongovernmental entity made up of people who are in that position solely by virtue of their employment and do not answer to the populace.”
“It usurps the Governor’s power to ensure the faithful execution of the applicable ethics laws,” they add.
Good government groups, which filed an amicus brief defending COELIG, are calling for the state’s highest court to overturn the decision.
“We strongly believe that it is constitutional for the Legislature and Governor to pass legislation that adds independence to ethics oversight,” Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor at Reinvent Albany, told the Post in a statement.
“We note that the State Ethics Commission – which is still appointed by the officials they must oversee – in our view still isn’t independent enough,” she added.