LaValle v. Hayden
| Decision Date | 06 June 2002 |
| Citation | 746 N.Y.S.2d 125,773 N.E.2d 490,98 N.Y.2d 155 |
| Parties | KENNETH P. LAVALLE et al., Appellants, v. CARL T. HAYDEN et al., as Regents of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, et al., Respondents. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Hamburger, Maxson & Yaffe, LLP, Melville (Richard Hamburger, David N. Yaffe and Lane T. Maxson of counsel), for appellants.
Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York City (Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr., and Mary Eaton of counsel), and Kathy A. Ahearn, Albany, for Carl T. Hayden and others, respondents. Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General, New York City (Melanie L. Oxhorn, Caitlin J. Halligan and Michael S. Belohlavek of counsel), for State of New York and another, respondents.
The question presented by this appeal is whether the joint ballot provisions of Education Law § 202, providing for an alternative means of electing members of the State Board of Regents, where the Senate and Assembly fail to elect by concurrent resolution, violate article XI, §§ 1 and 2—the Education Article—of the New York State Constitution. We say that they do not.
Plaintiffs Kenneth P. LaValle, a State Senator, and David H. Pearl, a retired teacher, commenced this action in Supreme Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against defendants, 14 individually named regents, the Board of Regents of the State of New York, Alexander F. Treadwell, the Secretary of State, and the State of New York. The underlying facts are undisputed. The Education Law provides guidelines for the election of state regents.1 The Legislature must first attempt to elect regents by concurrent resolution. When the Senate and Assembly are deadlocked, the Legislature may use a "joint ballot" to elect regents. The individually named regent defendants were elected, on various dates, pursuant to the contested joint ballot method. Plaintiffs sought to enjoin defendant regents from assuming office, and additionally sought a declaration that the joint ballot provisions of Education Law § 202 (1) and (2) are unconstitutional. Following commencement of the action, defendants promptly moved to dismiss the action pursuant to CPLR 3211. Plaintiffs cross-moved for summary judgment. Supreme Court denied plaintiffs' motion, and granted defendants' motions dismissing the complaint. The Appellate Division affirmed. Plaintiffs now appeal as of right pursuant to CPLR 5601 (b) (1).
Plaintiffs contend that joint ballot elections violate the constitutional delegation of legislative authority over regents expressly provided in article XI, §§ 1 and 2 of the State Constitution. Specifically, plaintiffs argue that the unicameral legislative body attendant to the joint ballot does not constitute the "legislature" as required in article XI, § 2 because only the Senate and Assembly acting bicamerally constitute the "legislature" within the meaning of the Constitution. In light of the validated and extensive historical use of the joint ballot, at both the federal and state levels, plaintiffs' argument necessarily fails.
The University of the State of New York is a corporate institution with roots that trace back to colonial America (NY Const, art XI, § 2; L 1784, ch 51). The University's historical underpinnings provide useful insight into the resolution of this appeal.
In the wake of the Revolutionary War, a newly minted State Legislature sought to provide for a pervasive state education system. In 1784, the Legislature established the University of the State of New York (see L 1784, ch 51). The University derives from a colonial remnant, the "Governors of the College of the Province of New York in the city of New York in America" (id.). The College was specifically structured as a corporate entity, charged with overseeing local education. Apparently satisfied with the colonial model, the Legislature transferred "all the rights priviledges and immunities" of the former institution to the University (id.). The 1784 statute expressly continued the "corporate" institution King George II initiated in colonial America, transforming the colonial "college" into a functioning "university" (see id.).
Upon the creation of the University, the Legislature concomitantly created a governing body—the Board of Regents—empowered to maintain and secure the University's advancement (id.; see also Shanker v Regents of Univ. of State of N.Y., 27 AD2d 84, 85 [3d Dept 1966], affd on op below 19 NY2d 951 [1967]). The regents were statutorily endowed with the "full power and authority to ordain and make ordinances and bye laws for the government of the several colleges" and to, among other things, "found schools and colleges" (L 1784, ch 51). Essentially, the regents governed and directed all aspects of the University's business.
Originally, the individual members of the Board of Regents were themselves named in the text of the statute. In effect, the enactment itself represented a legislative election of individual regents. In total, the 1784 statute named 24 individual regents, as well as a number of ex officio members statutorily granted a position on the board. Additionally, this statute granted the Governor a limited power to fill board vacancies as they occurred. This gubernatorial appointment method was ultimately replaced by the "joint ballot" in 1787.
Under the Articles of Confederation, each state was represented in Congress by "delegates" (Articles of Confederation art V). Article V expressly noted that delegates were to be appointed "in such manner as the legislatures of each state shall direct." New York chose the joint ballot. Article XXX of the first Constitution of New York, 1777, governed the appointment of "Delegates to * * * Congress." Article XXX provided that delegates were to "be chosen by the joint ballot of the [state] senators and members of assembly so met together." The Legislature, in 1787, ultimately applied this same method to regents, abolishing the gubernatorial power to fill vacancies, and replacing it with the same process used to elect delegates—the joint ballot (L 1787, ch 82).
The new act provided that regent vacancies were to be "supplied by the legislature in the manner in which delegates to Congress are appointed" (L 1787, ch 82). Delegates were still elected in accordance with the joint ballot provision articulated in article XXX of the Constitution of 1777. Interest in the perpetual statutory election system sanctioned by the Legislature during the initial years of the regents' existence began to wane, and ultimately it was replaced when the Legislature enacted constitutional provisions concerning the University and the regents.
Article IX of the Constitution of 1894 expressly endorsed the establishment of the University and the regents. Two years prior, the United States Supreme Court, in McPherson v Blacker (146 US 1 [1892]), indirectly approved the use of the joint ballot as a valid and constitutional means of electing state electors. When New York's constitutional convention convened in 1894, the delegates were well aware of the use of the joint ballot on both the federal and state levels.
Article IX of the Constitution of 1894 stated that "the Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this State may be educated" (NY Const of 1894, art IX, § 1). It embodied most of the prior statutory ideals and framework governing election of the regents and maintenance of the University. Article IX, § 2 "continued" the University, granting sole control of the University and regents to the Legislature. Implied in this grant of authority was the power to elect regents. Article IX was subsequently renumbered and transposed, in its entirety, to what is currently article XI of the State Constitution. Thus, for more than two centuries the joint ballot has been an integral part of the procedure for selecting regents. The framers of the 1894 Constitution knew this when they adopted the predecessor to article XI, § 2, "crystaliz[ing] into a constitutional mandate the settled policy of the State" (1894 Report of Comm on Educ and Funds Pertaining Thereto, at 5, reprinted in 1894 Doc and Reports of NY Constitutional Convention, at 118). Plaintiffs' argument that this "policy" was merely intended to maintain the Legislature's authority over the regents, is too constricted. The better view is that the constitutional framers also intended to preserve the means to ensure continued effectiveness of the regents. This, in turn, would presuppose the continuation of a suitable means for electing regents in the event of legislative deadlock. Against this backdrop, we evaluate the constitutionality of the joint ballot.
Legislative enactments enjoy a strong presumption of constitutionality (see Paterson v University of State of N.Y., 14 NY2d 432, 438 [1964]). While the presumption is not irrefutable, parties challenging a duly enacted statute face the initial burden of demonstrating the statute's invalidity "beyond a reasonable doubt" (People v Tichenor, 89 NY2d 769, 773 [1997]; see also People v Pagnotta, 25 NY2d 333, 337 [1969]). Moreover, courts must avoid, if possible, interpreting a presumptively valid statute in a way that will needlessly render it unconstitutional (see Alliance of Am. Insurers v Chu, 77 NY2d 573, 585 [1991]). These well-established principles guide our analysis.
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Doona v. Onesource Holdings Inc
-
Caldwell v. N.Y.C. Transit Auth.
...Taxation & Fin., 20 N.Y.3d 586, 593, 965 N.Y.S.2d 61, 987 N.E.2d 621 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see LaValle v. Hayden, 98 N.Y.2d 155, 161, 746 N.Y.S.2d 125, 773 N.E.2d 490 ).2 The plaintiff's construction of CPLR 4106, which is that the statute does not require the jury to restart ......
-
Williams v. Dep't of Corr.
...interpreting a presumptively valid statute in a way that will needlessly render it unconstitutional” (LaValle v. Hayden, 98 N.Y.2d 155, 161, 746 N.Y.S.2d 125, 773 N.E.2d 490 [2002] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; see also v. People v. Foley, 94 N.Y.2d 668, 677, 709 N.Y.S.2......
-
White v. Cuomo
..."face the initial burden of demonstrating [article 14's] invalidity ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ " ( LaValle v. Hayden, 98 N.Y.2d 155, 161, 746 N.Y.S.2d 125, 773 N.E.2d 490 [2002], quoting People v. Tichenor, 89 N.Y.2d 769, 773, 658 N.Y.S.2d 233, 680 N.E.2d 606 [1997] ; see Matter of Moran T......