Filed Date: 6/29/1976
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
HON. JUDAH GRIBETZ Counsel to the Governor
This is in response to your request for an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the provisions of sections
The Law Revision Commission was created by chapter 597 of the Laws of 1934, which added Article 4-A to the Legislative Law. The Commission consists of the Chairmen of the Senate and Assembly Judiciary committees and the Chairmen of the Senate and Assembly Codes committees, ex officio, plus five additional members appointed by the Governor. Four of the members appointed by the Governor must be attorneys and at least two of them must be faculty members of law schools within the State. The Governor designates one of the appointed members as Chairman of the Commission (Legislative Law, §
The duties of the Commission are to examine the common law and statutes of the State and current judicial decisions for the purpose of discovering defects and recommending reforms; to receive and consider proposed changes in the law; to recommend such changes as are needed to modify or eliminate antiquated and inequitable rules of law; and to report their recommendations annually to the Legislature (Legislative Law, §
Pursuant to section
Sections
The Law Revision Commission is not part of any State department. It is an independent body whose purpose is to advise the Legislature as to necessary reforms in the law. As an independent body, which is not part of any State department, it is not a "state agency" within the provisions of sections
A statutory amendment would be necessary to make the Law Revision Commission a "state agency" for purposes of sections
The main purpose of the Law Revision Commission is legislative,i.e., to research the law and recommend reforms in the law to the Legislature. However, the members of the Commission are not "legislative employees" within the provisions of the Public Officers Law. Four members are legislators serving ex officio, and five members are appointed by the Governor. Each appointed member receives a yearly salary which is provided for in the Executive Budget, rather than in the Legislative Budget. Therefore, neither the members serving ex officio nor the members appointed by the Governor are "legislative employees" within sections
Four members of the Commission are members of the Legislature, serving by virtue of their office as Chairmen of the Assembly and Senate Judiciary and Codes Committees. Each of these members is subject to the provisions of sections
In view of the foregoing, I conclude that members of the Law Revision Commission who are appointed by the Governor are not subject to the provisions of Public Officers Law, §§