We believe this law is constitutional and Attorney General James must appeal this decision to the highest court. It defies common sense for the Third Department Appellate Court to throw up its hands and say the Governor has to be able to fire the same ethics officials whose job is to make sure the Governor follows the laws. The terrible logic of this decision is to create an imperial Governor who can ignore ethics laws and can only be removed through impeachment or the ballot box.
Lastly, we find it feckless that the Appellate Court did not respond to the well-supported arguments supporting the law’s constitutionality that we and our colleagues made in a lengthy amicus brief.