The Moreland Act was an act passed by the New York Legislature and signed into law in 1907. It was introduced by Sherman Moreland, the Republican leader of the legislature. He proposed the act at the urging of New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes. It was known as Section 7 of the Executive Law from 1907 to 1909 and Section 8 from 1909 to 1951. It is now known as Section 6 of the Executive Law. [1]
The act allows the governor, in person or through one or more persons appointed by the governor, to examine management and affairs of any department, board, bureau or commission in the state. [2] Investigators could interview witnesses, administer oaths, hold hearings, and seize any material deemed relevant to the investigator's case. [1] The investigators then had to use that intelligence to recommend legislative actions. [3]
Note: This list may not be complete.
The government of California is the governmental structure of the U.S. state of California as established by the California Constitution. California uses the separation of powers system to structure its government. It is composed of three branches: the executive, consisting of the governor of California and the other constitutionally elected and appointed officers and offices; the legislative, consisting of the California State Legislature, which includes the Assembly and the Senate; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. There is also local government, consisting of counties, cities, special districts, and school districts, as well as government entities and offices that operate independently on a constitutional, statutory, or common law basis. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall and ratification.
Herman Carl McCall is an American politician of the Democratic Party. A former New York State Comptroller and New York State Senator, McCall was the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York in 2002. McCall was the first African-American to be elected New York State Comptroller. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and he currently serves on the board of directors of several corporations. From October 17, 2011 until his retirement on June 30, 2019, McCall served as chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees.
Daniel J. O'Donnell is an American politician from the state of New York. A Democrat, he is a member of the New York State Assembly. O'Donnell represents the 69th district in Manhattan, made up of the neighborhoods of Manhattan Valley, Morningside Heights, and portions of the Upper West Side and West Harlem. He is the older brother to Rosie O'Donnell.
Andrew Mark Cuomo is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuomo, held for three terms. In 2021, Cuomo resigned from office amidst numerous allegations of sexual misconduct and covering up COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes. At the time of his resignation, he was the longest-serving governor in the United States still in position.
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). The New York State Department of Economic Development (DED) is a department of the New York government that has been operationally merged into ESD.
Kathleen Maura Rice is an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States representative for New York's 4th congressional district from 2015 to 2023. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before serving in Congress, Rice served as the Nassau County district attorney, and, before that, she served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia and as an assistant district attorney in the Kings County District Attorney's Office in New York City.
Robert Abrams is an American attorney and politician. He served as the attorney general of New York from 1979 to 1993 and was the Democratic nominee for the 1992 United States Senate election in New York.
Andrew Joseph Lanza is an American lawyer and Republican politician. He is a member of the New York State Senate, representing the 24th district, which includes most of Staten Island. He was elected in 2006 after having served on the New York City Council for the 51st district.
Andrea Alice Stewart-Cousins is an American politician and educator from Yonkers, New York. A member of the Democratic Party, Stewart-Cousins has represented District 35 in the New York State Senate since 2007 and has served as Majority Leader and Temporary President of that body since 2019. She has previously served twice as acting lieutenant governor of New York under Governor Kathy Hochul, for 16 days in 2021 and between April and May 2022. Stewart-Cousins is the first Black woman to serve as the New York lieutenant governor, although in an acting capacity. She is the first woman in the history of New York State to lead a conference in the New York State Legislature and is also the first female Senate Majority Leader in New York history.
The New York State Insurance Department (NYSID) was the state agency responsible for supervising and regulating all insurance business in New York State. It was regarded in the industry as one of the most state-of-the-art insurance regulatory agencies.
The New York State Department of Labor is the department of the New York state government that enforces labor law and administers unemployment benefits.
Paul Jerome Curran was an American Republican politician who served in the New York State Assembly and fought corruption as a federal prosecutor and as the state's commissioner of investigation.
Regina Marie Calcaterra is an American attorney, a founding partner of Calcaterra Pollack LLP law firm, and a New York Times best-selling author. A known presence in state and local politics, she served as Executive Director to two of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s investigatory commissions, Chief Deputy to Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone, and Deputy General Counsel to both the New York State Insurance Fund and New York City Employees’ Retirement System.
Evan Anderson Davis is a New York City attorney with the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and a former president of the New York City Bar Association.
The U.S. state of New York has generally been seen as socially liberal in regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". The advocacy movement for LGBT rights in the state has been dated as far back as 1969 during the Stonewall riots in New York City. Same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults has been legal since the New York v. Onofre case in 1980. Same-sex marriage has been legal statewide since 2011, with some cities recognizing domestic partnerships between same-sex couples since 1998. Discrimination protections in credit, housing, employment, education, and public accommodation have explicitly included sexual orientation since 2003 and gender identity or expression since 2019. Transgender people in the state legally do not have to undergo sex reassignment surgery to change their sex or gender on official documents since 2014. In addition, both conversion therapy on minors and the gay and trans panic defense have been banned since 2019. Since 2021, commercial surrogacy has been legally available within New York State.
The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) is a 2019 New York law which added gender identity and gender expression to the state's human rights and hate crimes laws as protected classes; banned discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations based on gender identity and gender expression; and provided enhanced penalties for bias-motivated crimes. GENDA was first introduced in 2003. The bill passed the New York State Assembly every year from 2008 to 2019, but did not receive a floor vote in the New York State Senate until January 2019. It was passed by each house of the New York State Legislature on January 15, 2019, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it into law on January 25, 2019.
The Commission to Investigate Public Corruption was a public entity created by New York governor Andrew Cuomo in July 2013 under the state's Moreland Act, with the aim of investigating politicians and political organizations in New York for violations of state laws regulating elections, campaigns and political fundraising. Cuomo disbanded the commission after approving modest ethics reform in March 2014, whereupon U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced that he would continue investigating the commission's targets and the governor's office itself.
Sherman Moreland was an American lawyer and politician from New York and the Philippines.
James J. Malatras is an American government official and university administrator who was the Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY) system from August 2020 until his resignation in January 2022.
Richard Briffault is an American legal scholar. He is the Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation at Columbia Law School. From 2014 to 2020, he served as Chairman of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board. His specialties are constitutional law, government regulation, and election law.