PETITION SEEKING TO INVALIDATE THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE SUFFOLK COUNTY COMMITTEE OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY SHOULD HAVE BEEN DENIED (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the petition seeking to invalidate the organizational meeting of the Suffolk County Committee of the Conservative Party should have been denied. The decision is fact specific and deals with many Election Law procedural issues that cannot be fairly summarized here:
… [W]e are mindful that “a court’s jurisdiction to intervene in election matters is limited to the powers expressly conferred by statute” … . The ” internal issues arising within political parties are best resolved within the party organization itself and judicial involvement should only be undertaken as a last resort'” … . While the courts “will act to protect the rights of committee persons to be present and to vote at meetings of the committee” … , ” [j]udicial intervention is only warranted upon a clear showing that a party or its leaders have violated [the Election Law] or the party’s own rules adopted in accordance with law, or otherwise [have] violat[ed] the rights of party members or the electorate'” … . No such showing was made in this case. Matter of Auerbach v Suffolk County Comm. of the Conservative Party, 2019 NY Slip Op 02515, Second Dept 4-3-19