New York ethics

ALBANY, N.Y. — An appeals court in New York upheld a lower court’s finding that the protocols established by the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government violated the separation of powers doctrine. Agreeing with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s challenge to the commission, the court says that no matter how well intended, the law establishing the commission usurped the government’s executive power to enforce laws — in this case, on ethics — placing the power instead within an agency outside the executive’s control.