THE ROBING ROOM

No question he can be prickly but he's totally independent and fair-minded and willing -- unlike many other judges -- to take the government on and make new law -- even if the Second Circuit eventually reverses him. He upheld a defendant's right to post-conviction access to evidence for DNA testing in McKithen, struck down NYS's persistent felony offender law in Portalatin, wrote the 2d Cir. opinion in Triumph Capital reversing several counts for a discovery violation, granted the habeas in Policano v. Herbert, etc. His opinions are well researched, clearly written and scholarly