When former Lieutenant Gov. David Paterson was elevated to New York state’s highest political office in the wake of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s sudden resignation, the state constitution was unclear about the succession process. How, and if, the then-vacant lieutenant governor role he once held could be filled was a mystery.
The vacancy deprived the State Senate of the lieutenant governor’s tie-breaking vote, which could have prevented a month-long stalemate in the Senate the following year. The impasse caused political chaos in Albany. In response, Paterson appointed businessman Richard Ravitch as the new lieutenant governor, prompting Senate Republicans to sue Paterson. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals ruled the governor had the sole authority to appoint a lieutenant governor.
“We estimated that the State lost $2.9 billion because of this struggle between 63 senators who couldn’t find a way—similar to what’s going on in the House of Representatives in Washington right now—to find their leader,” Paterson told an audience in a fireside chat at Fordham Law School. “I think that, had a procedure been in place, it would have been very helpful to me at that time.”
The fireside chat was part of “Gubernatorial Succession in New York: Improving Lieutenant Governor Replacement and Succession Procedures,” an event co-hosted by Fordham Law School and the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA). In addition to lieutenant governor replacement, the program explored New York state’s policies for situations when the governor is unable to fulfill his or her duties in office, the gubernatorial line of succession, and the constitutional provision that transfers the governor’s power whenever the governor is “absent” from the state.
Fordham Law was a fitting host for the program, given the Law School’s long history in the area of presidential succession. In October 1963, future Dean John D. Feerick ’61 published a ground-breaking article in the Fordham Law Review about presidential succession and what happens when a president is unable to serve. One month later, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and Feerick was called upon to be a part of the legal response to the tragedy. He played a key role in framing the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which became a model for many state-level succession plans across the country.
In 2022, the Rule of Law Clinic—led by Feerick and Senior Fellow John Rogan ’14—examined the New York State Constitution, focusing on the lessons that could be learned from the 25th Amendment and what could be applied to the state level from the federal level. Students prepared an influential report titled “Changing Hands: Recommendations to Improve New York’s System of Gubernatorial Succession” and advocated for a set of reforms to the current succession rules after a pattern of “unanticipated turnovers” in both the governor and lieutenant-governor roles over the last 15 years. Many of their recommendations have since been cited by NYSBA.
Before the event where Paterson spoke, the Rule of Law Clinic’s current students met with the former governor to present their updated proposals for reforming the state’s gubernatorial succession procedures.
“Given Governor Paterson’s extensive political experience—as a state senator, lieutenant governor, and governor—it was incredibly useful hearing his insights into some of the issues facing New York politics, particularly regarding ways to improve lieutenant governor replacement, the gubernatorial line of succession, and the state’s inability and absence provisions,” said Chase Cooper ’25, a student in the Rule of Law Clinic.
The evening also featured a fireside chat between Feerick and former NYSBA President Michael Miller as well as a panel discussion on NYSBA’s recommendations for improving the State’s gubernatorial succession procedures. Two members of the NYSBA committee that drafted the report—Adrienne Koch and Alan Rothstein—presented the recommendations, while James McGuire, a former Chief Counsel to Gov. George Pataki, and Liz Benjamin, a former New York politics journalist, shared their responses to the proposals.
The program’s co-sponsors included the Feerick Center for Social Justice, the Fordham Law Voting Rights & Democracy Project, Citizens Union, the League of Women Voters of New York, the New York City Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers Association, and the Government Law Center at Albany Law School.