Lavine filed a lawsuit pending in Onondaga County against the state that contests his rejection by the vetting panel.

It argues the Senate is representative of every person of every region of the state, while law school administrators are representative of a “narrow professional strata of the state’s citizenry.”

The former 14-member JCOPE had been criticized by many for conflict of interests and its handling of investigations during its 11-year existence.

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared it “irreparably broken” when she dismantled the agency.

JCOPE’s final act was the release of a report that it had law firm Hogan Lovells conduct and which found former Gov. Andrew Cuomo improperly used state staff and resources while writing a 2020 memoir about the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency ordered Cuomo to surrender his $5.1 million in book profits to the state.

In August, Cuomo won a lawsuit in which he challenged JCOPE’s attempt to seize the book profits.

JCOPE had initially given Cuomo permission to write the book, but changed its stance after it said he misrepresented what the book would be about.

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