[Editor's note: Joseph W. Bellacosa served the New York Court of Appeals from 1975 to 2000 as chief clerk, counsel, chief administrative judge and associate judge. The Law Journal proudly presents this latest edition in an occasional series in which the retired judge shares reflections from his long tenure in New York's judiciary.]

In 1972, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller persuaded the legislature to enact his draconian "drug laws." That was part of his failed quest to be president, wanting to appear "tough on crime" to offset his "liberal" Republican political casting—as if the deadly siege at Attica Prison in 1971 was not enough!