D-Day: JLCNY Files Lawsuit Today Against Cuomo, Martens, Shah

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Gavel fallingToday the 70,000 members of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) will finally launched their legal offensive against a recalcitrant governor, commissioner of the DEC, and the state health commissioner. D-Day will, of course, forever be associated with the first day of the World War II Allied Forces landing on the beaches of Normandy, France–June 6, 1944. We are in no way comparing the current action by the JLCNY with that momentous day which included incredible sacrifices by brave American (and other country’s) troops. However, D-Day is also a generic military term that means the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. It is in that sense we say that today is legal D-Day for the JLCNY and pro-drilling landowners. This IS a battle, it IS important with incredibly high stakes, and it does seem as though the odds are stacked against us. However, we have our own allied legal forces and we, as pro-drilling landowners in New York, are determined to win. And win we will!

The lawsuit will be filed in Supreme Court in Albany County, NY. (Oddly enough, Supreme Court is a lower court in New York–one step up from county court.) What a badge of shame for Cuomo, Martens and Shah to be sued by residents of their own state, pleading with the courts to force them to do the job they were elected (or appointed) to do. Below is the overview statement from JLCNY’s lead attorney Scott Kurkoski, a partner at Binghamton law firm Levene Gouldin & Thompson. It outlines the legal arguments the JLCNY will use in their Article 78 lawsuit to force compliance with established law and force the release of the SGEIS shale drilling regulations. Below the overview are copies of the lawsuit paperwork being filed today (three documents in all). We wish Scott and the JLCNY Godspeed and good luck–we’re cheering the whole way, and you should be too…

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