173 N.E. 265 | NY | 1930
The controversy in this case involves the determination of the validity of an act of the Legislature (Laws of 1930, ch. 651) which provides for the election of Municipal Court justices in the city of New York in an even-numbered year.
We think the act must be upheld.
Article XII, section 6, of the Constitution, in so far as it provides that all elections of judicial officers of inferior local courts, elected in any city or part of a city, except to fill vacancies, shall be held on the general election day in an odd-numbered year, and that the term of every such officer shall expire at the end of such a year, has been superseded by section 19 of article VI, the new Judiciary Article of the Constitution, which took effect January 1, 1926. *378
That section provides as follows: "Except as in this article provided, all judicial officers shall be elected or appointed at such times and in such manner as the legislature may direct."
The effect of this provision is to abolish all restraints upon the Legislature in fixing the times for the election of judges of inferior courts, except those restraints imposed by the Judiciary Article itself.
Until the revision of 1926, the subject now covered by section 19 was included in section 18, though not in the same words. The provision as then phrased was to the effect that all judicial officers were to be elected and appointed at such times and in such manner as the Legislature might direct, "except as herein otherwise provided," an exception which this court construed inMatter of Trounstine v. Britt (
The change was not inadvertent. It was necessary for the accomplishment of the fundamental scheme and purpose of the new Judiciary Article. For the first time in the history of the State a place is now given in the Constitution itself to inferior local courts in cities or parts of cities. Article VI, section 14, prescribes the organization of the Court of General Sessions of the city and county of New York, thereafter to be known as the Court of General Sessions of the county of New York, and fixes the terms of office of the judges. Article VI, section 15, prescribes the organization of the City Court of the city of New York, a court which in the past had been governed by article XII, section 6 (Matter of Trounstine v. Britt, supra; Matter ofDelehanty v. Britt,
The truth indeed is that the classification of judges of city courts in the category of city officers was always an anomaly. They are not properly city officers, but members of the judicial system of the State (Whitmore v. Mayor,
The conclusion is inescapable that they may be elected at such times and, subject to article VI, for such terms as the Legislature shall prescribe.
The order should be reversed and the application for a mandamus denied, without costs.
CARDOZO, Ch. J., POUND, CRANE, LEHMAN, KELLOGG, O'BRIEN and HUBBS, JJ., concur.
Order reversed, etc. *380