Streams of Tendency on the New York Court: Ideological and Jurisprudential Patterns in the Judges' Voting and Opinions

by Vincent Martin Bonventre

This work examines the voting of the individual judges of New York's highest court, as well as the decisions of the court itself in divided public law cases from 1987-2001. However, its purpose is not to outline the law of New York, but rather to provide insight into how and why the judges, individually and collectively, vote and decide cases involving fundamental questions of right, liberty, and government protected entitlement. In this way, it provides an ideological and jurisprudential profile of the court's members and how they and the court have either remained consistent or have changed over the course of 15 years -- from the last several years of the Chief Judge Wachtler era through the current era under Chief Judge Kaye.

335 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003