New York's top court has upheld Gov. David Paterson's power to appoint a lieutenant governor, reversing a lower court's decision.

The court ruling released Tuesday is a timely victory for Paterson, who is facing calls from national Democratic Party leaders to abandon his bid for governor in 2010.

The ruling makes Richard Ravitch the state's lietenant governor. Paterson appointed him July 8 to help break a monthlong Senate leadership struggle,

Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos then filed a lawsuit challenging Paterson's authority to make the appointment.

The lieutenant governor's post had been empty since Paterson stepped up to replace Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last year amid a prostitution scandal.

An appeals court says the federal government does not have to release information about wiretaps from the investigation that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found Friday that The New York Times had not shown it has a First Amendment right to the material.

A lower court had ordered the release of the FBI documents, which could reveal details about the origins and scope of the investigation.

The Times said it is disappointed and is reviewing the decision. It said public access to such records would provide "a valuable check on law enforcement agencies and on the courts."

The documents named other clients of the Emperor's Club VIP prostitution service.

David Paterson became governor in March 2008 after Spitzer resigned in disgrace.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the New York attorney general's office can investigate whether national banks discriminated against minorities seeking mortgages.

The justices overturned part of a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that entirely blocked the state office from investigating or enforcing the fair lending laws against national banks because they are subject instead to federal regulation.

In the court's main split opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia concluded the state attorney general cannot issue subpoenas, but can bring judicial enforcement actions.

In 2005, Eliot Spitzer, then the state attorney general, began investigating possible racial discrimination in mortgage lending. He sent letters of inquiry to mortgage lenders, including banks such as Wells Fargo, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

The probe was prompted by data that Spitzer said appeared to show a significantly higher percentage of high-interest home mortgage loans issued to black and Hispanic borrowers than to white borrowers.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a federal agency that oversees nationally chartered banks, sued to enjoin the probe on the grounds it fell outside state jurisdiction. A consortium of national banks also sued.

The boss of a prostitution ring used by disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer should serve at least two years in prison, prosecutors said Tuesday.

In papers filed in U.S. District Court, they argued Mark Brener earned "substantial punishment" with his role in the business and should receive the two to two and a half years in prison that was included in his plea agreement.

Brener pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit a prostitution offense and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He's scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Prosecutors cited his position as head of Emperors Club VIP and criticized his contrition, saying it didn't seem sincere.

"That the defendant continues to insist upon his moral rectitude and his legitimate intentions with respect to the Emperors Club raises a serious concern about the defendant's potential recidivism," prosecutors wrote.

Brener lawyer Murray Richman noted his client is 63 and said "time alone will prohibit the likelihood of him doing this again."

"In no way does Mr. Brener try to avoid his responsibility," Richman said. "He recognizes he did wrong."

The lawyer noted that his client has been in prison since his arrest last March, when Spitzer resigned after it was revealed he had met one of the Emperors Club's prostitutes at a Washington, D.C., hotel weeks earlier.

Prosecutors said in November they would not charge Spitzer after investigators found no evidence that he misused public or campaign funds for prostitution. The federal government typically does not prosecute clients of prostitution rings.

The manager of the escort service was sentenced to six months in prison last week. A booking agent received a year of probation and a second booking agent is awaiting sentencing.

New York's top court has affirmed dropping four claims against former chairman New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso, dealing a major setback to the legacy of former state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Two claims remain against Grasso's $187.5 million compensation package from the exchange, which was challenged by Spitzer as exorbitant for a not-for-profit organization.

In the decision affirming a lower court's ruling, Chief Judge Judith Kaye says the challenges were based on the size of the compensation package. But she says state law required more evidence to void such a payment.

Grasso argued that a private interest like NYSE should be free to set its own compensation.

A woman accused of booking clients for a prostitution ring has pleaded guilty in the federal probe that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Temeka Rachelle Lewis pleaded guilty Wednesday to promoting prostitution and money laundering. The 32-year-old is among four defendants in the case involving the Emperor's Club VIP call-girl ring.

Court papers say the FBI secretly recorded conversations between Lewis and Spitzer about a Feb. 13 tryst with a prostitute in Washington. The former governor is identified in the court papers as Client No. 9

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to resign, completing a stunning fall from power after he was nationally disgraced by links to a high-priced prostitution ring, a top state official said Wednesday.

Spitzer was scheduled to announce his resignation midday, according to a second top Spitzer staffer. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

Spitzer and his wife, Silda, left their apartment around 11 a.m. and got into a black SUV to take them to his office. Cameras aboard news helicopters tracked the movement of Spitzer's three-vehicle motorcade from his apartment on the Upper East Side to his office in midtown Manhattan.

Spitzer would be replaced by Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will become New York's first black governor.

The scandal erupted Monday when allegations surfaced that Spitzer, a 48-year-old married man with three teenage daughters, spent thousands of dollars on a call girl named Kristen at a swanky Washington hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.

"I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong," the governor said at a news conference with his wife at his side. "I apologize to the public, whom I promised better."

Calls for his resignation came immediately. Republicans began talking impeachment if he didn't step aside. Meanwhile, Spitzer stayed holed up in his Manhattan apartment, where he was reportedly weighing his options, including waiting to use resignation as a bargaining chip with federal prosecutors to avoid indictment.

The case involving Spitzer started when banks noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, leading public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

A law enforcement official said Tuesday that Spitzer had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the call-girl service Emperors Club VIP. Another official said the amount could be as high as $80,000.

Still another law enforcement official said investigators found that during the tryst with Kristen, Spitzer used two rooms at Washington's Mayflower Hotel — one for himself, the other for the prostitute. Sometime around 10 p.m., Spitzer sneaked away from his security detail and made his way to her room, the official said.

According to an affidavit, a federal judge approved wiretaps on the escort service's telephone in January and February. FBI agents in Washington had the Mayflower under surveillance when Spitzer was in town, a senior law enforcement official said.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Spitzer, a first-term Democrat, built his political reputation on rooting out government corruption, and made a name for himself as attorney general as crusader against shady practices and overly generous compensation. He also cracked down on prostitution.

He was known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." The square-jawed graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law was sometimes mentioned as a potential candidate for president.

He rode into the governor's office with a historic margin of victory on Jan. 1, 2007, vowing to stamp out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives with a vengeance while state attorney general.

His term as governor has been fraught with problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear his main Republican nemesis. The prostitution scandal, some said, was too much to overcome.

Barely known outside of his Harlem political base, Paterson, 53, has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985. He led the Democratic caucus in the Senate before running with Spitzer as his No. 2.

Though legally blind, Paterson has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance and even read if text is placed close to his face. While Spitzer is renowned for his abrasive style, Paterson has built a reputation as a conciliator.

At a morning news conference, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Spitzer's chief rival, said he had not yet heard from the governor but that he was moving on with the business of the state. Lawmakers were set to vote on budget bills Wednesday afternoon.

"We are going to partner with the lieutenant governor when he becomes governor," said Bruno. "David has always been very open with me, very forthright ... I look forward to a positive, productive relationship."

Bruno, though the next highest-ranking official, does not become lieutenant governor upon Paterson's ascension to governor. The lieutenant governor's office would remain vacant until the next general election in 2010 under state law. However, whenever Paterson is out of state or if he were to become incapacitated, Bruno would be acting governor.