Lewis v. New York State Department

Lahtinen, J. (concurring).

We respectfully concur in the result, but upon a much narrower ground.

Action taken by the state pertaining to its own employees is different from changing longstanding law that affects all of the state’s citizens. The Legislature has vested the President of the Civil Service Commission with broad discretion in defining, for purposes of health insurance coverage for state employees, the terms spouse and dependent children (see Civil Service Law § 164; Slattery v City of New York, 179 Misc 2d 740, 754 [1999], mod 266 AD2d 24 [1999], appeal dismissed 94 NY2d 897 [2000],…