Joseph W Bellacosa

August 22, 2024 | New York Law Journal

Law Journal columnist and former Court of Appeals Judge Joseph W. Bellacosa reflects on two books that push a bottom-line case for a transformation of the "top dog" highest tier tax structure, a provocative third-rail political proposition.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

6 minute read

July 22, 2024 | New York Law Journal

The Supreme Court has taken—and overturned—a remarkable number of cases involving alleged prosecutorial overreach over this last decade because it evidently sensed a troubling trend, Law Journal columnist and retired Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Bellacosa writes.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

6 minute read

June 05, 2024 | New York Law Journal

This is primarily a "Tale of Two Cases," heard on back-to-back days at the New York Court of Appeals in 1990. My focus highlights different standards the media use to cover, and often skew, the public understanding of a well-informed public concerning the civic importance and core values of cases and the judicial process.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

5 minute read

May 04, 2024 | New York Law Journal

While author Michael Lewis also catalogues Sam Bankman-Fried's wildly out-of-bounds amoral conduct and anti-social attitude, it is the trial, not the book, that strips the emperor down to his skivvies.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

4 minute read

April 23, 2024 | New York Law Journal

Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature got the job done before the Passover observance and recess—what a difference a couple of hundred years, many zeroes, and politico-speak make, a Law Journal columnist writes.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

5 minute read

April 04, 2024 | New York Law Journal

When powerful prosecutors instead act, or are reasonably perceived to act, out of vaulting ambition, political aggrandizement, ideological zealotry, or bulging-muscle-flexing exertions by creatively interpretive expansions beyond defined limited portfolios of responsibility, they woefully fail the Jackson test.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

5 minute read

March 19, 2024 | New York Law Journal

Retired Court of Appeals Judge Joseph W. Bellacosa salutes Presiding Justice Marcus G. Christ of the Appellate Division, Second Department, the most formative mentor of his career.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

5 minute read

March 01, 2024 | New York Law Journal

The current appointive system for Court of Appeals judges discarded the statewide elective method, a Law Journal columnist recounts. Centralized administration with statewide fiscal resources shifted executive leadership responsibility to the chief judge and chief administrative judge.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

5 minute read

February 07, 2024 | New York Law Journal

Since secular governance and its justice system are imperfect human institutions at all three branches, each must be ever mindful to keep striving for the ideal of fair, equal and proportionate justice, a Law Journal columnist writes.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

5 minute read

January 26, 2024 | New York Law Journal

A Law Journal columnist recounts legendary Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's one-time clash with a New York chief judge.

By Joseph W. Bellacosa

4 minute read