Recently, I was working at home when my daughter approached me with a question. She was studying for one of her final exams and she was struggling with a concept. "Dad, can you explain to me what separation of powers is?" she asked. My response to the question was reflexive as an officer of the court, a court sworn to preserve and protect the constitutional rights of the citizens who appear before it. I explained, "Our U.S. Constitution establishes three 'separate but equal' branches of government, a legislative branch, an executive branch and a judiciary branch. Each branch has individual powers to check the other branches and to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful." In reviewing these three foundational pillars of our government with my daughter, I reflected upon the importance of these checks and balances in the current struggle to correct a constitutional wrong perpetuated against New York's children and families by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Now more than ever, children and families need the help of the New York State Judiciary. While there is no doubt that children and parents have a right to counsel in most family legal proceedings, our chief executive—Governor Hochul—has abandoned this constitutional protection. In so doing, she actively violates the state and federal constitutions, creating a crisis that cries out for judicial review. Our governor ignores five decades of legal precedent, and she talks out of both sides of her mouth. While actively blocking the legislative branch from passing curative assigned counsel legislation, she acknowledges to the public and the court that the crisis exists and professes that she supports curative legislation. The good news for New York's most vulnerable—and an excellent lesson in constitutional government for my daughter—can be found in the current litigation pending in New York County Supreme Court that challenges the constitutional violation that Governor Hochul continues to permit to exist to the detriment of families and children.