Fordham Law’s Rule of Law Clinic made headlines in recent weeks with the publication of a report on gubernatorial succession in New York state. The report was picked up by a number of media outlets, including the New York Law Journal, NY1, and the New York County Lawyers Association’s Amicus Curiae podcast. It was also distributed to the New York State Law Revision Commission and the relevant committees of the New York State Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association.
In the report, “Changing Hands: Recommendations to Improve New York’s System of Gubernatorial Succession,” the clinic’s students call for 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, including the recent resignations of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin.
“Despite the frequency with which the state’s highest executive offices have changed hands, New York is unprepared to deal with a panoply of issues relating to its constitution’s gubernatorial succession provisions,” the report states. It goes on to recommend reforms on the issues of gubernatorial inability, gubernatorial absence, lieutenant governor replacement, and the line of succession.
The report was written by Fordham Law students Ian Bollag-Miller ’22, Stevenson Jean ’23, Maryam Sheikh ’22, and Frank Tamberino ’22, under the supervision of Dean Emeritus and Norris Professor of Law John D. Feerick ’61 and Visiting Clinical Professor John Rogan ’14.
Appearing on the NYCLA podcast, Feerick was introduced as “one of the preeminent legal educators in American jurisprudence history” and highlighted his role in the creation of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which itself became a model for many state-level succession plans across the country. Now, a new generation of law students, under Feerick’s guidance, are sounding the alarm on the topic of succession.
“We live in perilous times, a divided nation in so many ways—there should be no lack of confidence in our succession systems,” said Feerick on the podcast. “The time is right for reform, and reform should not be delayed.”