Chief judge suing state over pay

NEW YORK - The state's chief judge sued the state Thursday over its failure to increase judicial salaries.

The lawsuit by Chief Judge Judith Kaye was filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court. It says that because the state's judges have not had a pay hike since January 1999, their salaries have in effect shrunk by 27 percent.

Kaye's lawyer, Bernard Nussbaum, said it is illegal to reduce a sitting judge's salary, and that is in effect what has happened.