The NY Times reports: Gov. David A. Paterson’s naming of Richard Ravitch last month to the vacant lieutenant governor’s post was ruled illegal on Thursday by a state appeals court panel that deemed Mr. Paterson had violated the State Constitution.

The ruling blocks Mr. Ravitch from serving as lieutenant governor.

“The governor’s purported appointment of Mr. Ravitch was unlawful because no provision of the Constitution or of any statute provides for the filling of the vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor other than by election,” said the ruling from the four-judge panel of the Second Judicial Department of the Appellate Division in Brooklyn.

Lawyers representing Mr. Paterson had argued that the state’s Public Officers Law, which governs the powers, duties and qualifications for government officials in New York, allows governors to fill vacant offices when state law does not specify how the vacancy should be filled.

Mr. Paterson has claimed that the combination of a political crisis in Albany and an economic crisis made his actions necessary. When Mr. Paterson named Mr. Ravitch lieutenant governor on July 8, the Senate was deadlocked, 31 to 31, as Democrats and Republicans fought over the majority leader post.

But lawyers for Republicans who challenged Mr. Ravitch’s appointment argued that Mr. Paterson used a political crisis to seize a power that the Constitution does not give him.

The state appeals court agreed, saying, “No considerations of the state’s financial difficulties or of political strife in the Senate allow us to find authority for Mr. Ravitch’s appointment.”

(Source: NY Times)