Professor Arthur S. Leonard.

The following is an op-ed in response to Professor Ross Sandler’s Commentary regarding mail-in ballots and the election. To read that piece, click here. 

I think Ross Sandler makes some very good points in this editorial on mail-in ballots.  I think, however, that we have an exceptional situation with this year’s election.  Part of the problem in thinking about the mail-in ballot issue is that it takes a fair amount of time to undertake the steps necessary to conduct mail-in voting on a large scale, especially in a jurisdiction where it hasn’t been done in the past.  We can’t know far enough in advance what the situation will be with the pandemic. (read more…)

Ross Sandler, Center for New York City Law Director

Large numbers of people will vote by mail-in ballots this November because of Covid-19. Everyone should be concerned about the impact of mail-in ballots on democracy. (read more…)

Elizabeth Fine became General Counsel and Executive Vice-President of the Empire State Development Corporation in 2014 after a long career of government service. Fine grew up in New Haven, Washington D.C., and Lima, Peru. Her family eventually settled in the Boston area, where Fine graduated Brookline High School. Jonathan Fine, Elizabeth’s father, had worked in Lima for the Agency for International Development while her mother, Edith W. Fine, was an administrator for the Peace Corp. Afterwards Fine’s mother worked as an attorney for Boston’s Corporation Counsel and later became a judge of the Boston Municipal Court, then rising to the Massachusetts Superior Court and the Massachusetts Court of Appeals. Fine’s father eventually became the Boston’s Deputy Commissioner of Health and founded the non-profit “Physicians for Human Rights.” (read more…)

Section of sidewalk on Westchester Avenue between St. Ann’s Avenue and Brook Avenue. Image Credit: Google Maps

Pedestrian injured on a defect in the sidewalk owned by the City. Pedestrian Luis Sanchez was injured when he tripped and fell on a defect in the sidewalk located on Westchester Avenue between St. Ann’s Avenue and Brook Avenue in the Bronx. Sanchez sued the City. The City, citing the generality of the mark on a Big Apple Map, moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of prior notice. (read more…)

New York City has general capacity to sue for negligent destruction of trees. A private property owner hired Tri-Rail Construction company to perform sidewalk repairs for a property adjacent to City property. During the course of the sidewalk repairs, Tri-Rail damaged City trees. (read more…)

Credit: CityLaw

New York State in 2021 must redraw the State’s senate, assembly and congressional districts. The process will be different from the process used to draw legislative and congressional district lines in the past. Previously, the State legislature redrew the districts for its own members and for the State’s congressional members.  After years of efforts to reform a process seen as too self-interested, New York State voters in 2014 approved an amendment to the State constitution that created a  new Redistricting Commission that will propose new district lines to the legislature. The legislature still gets the last word, but the commission process opens the redistricting process up, provides an outside entity to act as the initial proposer, and adds guidelines for map design for fairness. (read more…)