Legal Aid Society of Sullivan County, Inc. v. Scheinman

Is it unconstitutional for a defendant charged with a crime, conviction for which could bring imprisonment, to be compelled to have his case tried before a Judge who is not a lawyer? That is the real issue in this case.

As I see it, the majority’s decision, purportedly based on procedural grounds, despite its protestations to the contrary necessarily assumes its own resolution of the substantive constitutional question. The assumption is that a decision, whether to remove a case, pursuant to CPL 170.25, from a local criminal court presided over by a lay Justice to a “superior court” at which…