We want a strong ethics enforcer for the state government, so we hope that the state’s highest court throws out the weak body now in place, allowing for a more rigorous replacement, and one that comports with the state Constitution. The caption of today’s case before the Court of Appeals perfectly explains the situation: Cuomo vs. New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. Cuomo is Andew Cuomo, the former governor, who the agency called COELIG has wrongly pursued to have him return the $5.1 million he earned from his ill-timed COVID memoir after the book was previously approved. We thought the book, published when Cuomo was in office in 2020, was a terrible mistake and said so at the time. But the book deal was approved by the Albany ethics cop then in place, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics or JCOPE, and its successor can’t go undo an approval. In his fight with COELIG over them wrongly trying to reverse the memoir ruling, Cuomo’s lawyers have also argued that the very structure of COELIG violates the state Constitution, which it does. A trial judge ruled that COELIG is unconstitutional and a five-judge appellate panel unanimously agreed. Today’s court will make the final decision. COELIG has only three of 11 members appointed by the governor and she can’t remove them from their seats. As the appellate decision said, the statute setting up the agency: “revokes the governor’s enforcement power with respect to the ethics laws, thereby depriving her of all discretion in determining the methods of enforcement of these laws. Instead, it places this power into the hands of defendant, an entity over which she maintains extremely limited control and oversight, as she appoints a minority of members and has no ability to remove members.” They continued: “As such, Executive Law § 94 creates an agency with executive power, in that it has the authority to investigate and impose penalties for the violation of the ethics laws, while being entirely outside the control of the executive branch. Thus, it usurps the governor’s power to ensure the faithful execution of the applicable ethics laws.” A majority, six of the 11 members, are appointed by the Legislature, and as the court ruled: “However, defendant lacks jurisdiction to impose penalties or discipline on legislative officials and staff and may only prepare a written report and provide same to the Legislative Ethics Commission, along with a copy of the file and hearing record.” So the Legislature runs the COELIG show, but it has no real power over them, only for the executive. Sorry, that changes the balance or power in state government and requires a constitutional amendment. Such an amendment should also put the people in the Legislature under the authority of the ethics watchdog. Reading the briefs and decisions it is very clear that the earlier ethics agency, JCOPE, also had the exact same constitutional defect, as the governor appointed only six of its 14 members. Get it right. Go through the steps to amend the Constitution and set up an ethics agency that can have power and oversight over everyone in Albany.