ALBANY—Ignoring the legal advice of the state’s top lawyer, Gov. David A. Paterson tapped a downstate attorney as lieutenant governor Wednesday to help break the month-old stalemate in the State Senate.

Republicans promptly threatened court action to block the move, and a state supreme court judge in Nassau County issued a temporary restraining order early this morning that

prevents Paterson's appointee from assuming the office of lieutenant governor, according to John Mcardle, a

spokesman for Sen. Dean Skelos, who sought the order.

Mcardle said the temporary restraining order is in effect until a hearing Friday in Nassau

County.

Just hours after both Republicans and Democrats claimed progress in talks to resolve the Senate leadership fight, Paterson took to the television airwaves to appoint 76-year-old Richard Ravitch, who has held various government posts for five decades, as lieutenant governor through next year.

The governor said his legal advisers provided the green light for his move, which would put Ravitch first in the line of succession to Paterson and makes him the Senate’s presiding officer. But State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo warned days ago that would be “unconstitutional” and lead to a protracted fight to resolve the Senate standoff.

The temporary restraining order was signed at 12:23 this morning by Supreme Court Judge Ute

Lally.

It prevents Ravitch from "exercising any of the powers" of lieutenant governor, including presiding as president of the state Senate in this afternoon's special session. The order declares the lieutenant governor's office still vacant and prohibits Secretary of State

Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez from accepting certification from Paterson of an oath of office given to Ravitch.

But Paterson, in a secret ceremony, had Ravitch sworn in last night at 8:30 p.m. Administration officials had told reporters the swearing in ceremony would not be held until 11:30 this morning. The official papers were then transmitted immediately to the Secretary of State's office ... hours before the Republicans went to court.

"Once again, secrecy in the middle of the night," Mcardle said of the surprise swearing in of Ravitch last night. "Publicly saying one thing and secretly doing another. It's classic

Paterson."

Lawyers for Paterson this morning said they are reviewing their legal options to the overnight order.

Kathleen Sullivan, an outside lawyer hired by Paterson for an unknown fee, said they are "diligently pursuing" a response to the restraining order. She criticized the location of the court action.

"They tried to get out of Albany and down to Nassau in the middle of the night," she said.

Sullivan added that the governor's office asked Cuomo to represent him in the legal action. But, she said, Cuomo declined.

Paterson officials have sent signals they still intend to have Ravitch preside at today's

special session, despite the judge's order. They say he was sworn in before the order was

issued early this morning.

"We'll see. There's a court order preventing him from even being sworn in. It's surprising

that Richard Ravitch would let his reputation be sullied in a political effort by the

governor," the Skelos spokesman said.

Behind the scenes, the sides were taking swipes at each other.

Sources say Skelos' lawyer, John Ciompoli, has represented the judge in election law cases.

Mcardle would not say if that was the case. But he accused Paterson of tapping two Democrats ... Andrew Celli and Richard Emery, who serve as gubernatorial appointees to the state's ethics commission ... to help Senate Democrats in their court battles over the past month.

The Buffalo News reported that Emery is making $750 per hour and Celli is getting $525 for

representing the Democrats.

Observers say the Ravitch appointment would make Senate Democrats less eager to negotiate a power- sharing deal with Republicans. Ravitch, a Democrat, has donated about $20,000 to Democratic causes in recent years, including to the party’s gubernatorial ticket in 2006.

The governor said the state faces another round of major, midyear budget cuts to cope with a 36 percent drop in projected revenues and can’t tolerate an incapacitated State Senate any longer.

But the lieutenant governor’s powers in the Senate are limited. His presence, for instance, can’t provide a quorum, so how Ravitch would be able to help force action on any of the hundreds of stalled bills remained unclear.

“This is the right thing for all New Yorkers. We cannot allow for any further exposure to uncertainty and risk at a time of unparalleled fiscal difficulty,” Paterson said.

Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., the Bronx Democrat elected Senate president in the contested June 8 coup, said, “We will be in court . . . clearly an overreach of the executive.”

Republican lawyers were drafting legal papers Wednesday, researching everything from broad constitutional questions to challenging how Paterson can make an appointment without confirmation by the Senate.

Sen. Dean G. Skelos, the Rockville Centre Republican elected majority leader in the coup, said Paterson’s move is about next year’s gubernatorial election.

“Sadly, once again, the governor has put his political career ahead of you, the public,” Skelos said in a broadcast response. He later said Paterson acted “illegally and recklessly,” delaying any deals to end the gridlock.

The governor asked for the public’s support to end what he called the Senate’s “paralysis.” He won backing from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and New York Common Cause.

A number of legal scholars, though, called his move illegal.

Critics said Paterson wanted to extend the Senate’s stalemate—this time with a new round of delaying court maneuvers — in hopes of raising his poll numbers by trying to depict himself as protecting residents against politicians embroiled in a leadership food fight.

An internal poll taken for Paterson showed his favorability rating up 8 percentage points since the coup, though an outside poll put the increase at 2 percentage points.

Critics also wondered why Paterson did not try to appoint a lieutenant governor back in March 2008 when he ascended to the governor’s office.

But aides said the position of Senate president — who is next in line of authority following the lieutenant governor — had not been in dispute until the June 8 coup.

Questions also arose over how deeply Paterson had vetted the background of Ravitch, who has held different government posts but never has been elected to public office and would serve a heartbeat away from the governor’s job. By contrast, Paterson earlier this year spent two months doing exhaustive checks and interviews with numerous candidates to succeed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Peter Kauffmann, a Paterson spokesman, said Ravitch did go through a background check and added that he is “so prominent that he has a very public record over 30 years.”

Legal support claimed

The Paterson administration released the names of a number of lawyers, including former Attorney General Robert Abrams, who they said maintain that the governor’s move is legal. The administration notes the constitution provides no provision for filling vacancies in the lieutenant governor’s office and argues that a “catchall provision of state law” permits Wednesday’s move.

While expected court action could toss the Senate question into legal disarray for weeks or months, a lawmaker who first publicly pushed the appointment idea says the state’s highest court could get the case quickly.

“This is just: does the law allow or not allow this? It is a very straightforward question,” said Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat.

But Bennett Liebman, executive director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School, noted that a state commission that reviews major laws studied the lieutenant governor issue between 1986 and 1988 and found that the constitution’s provisions on the line of succession are “adequate to handle” the infrequent times when the state has been without a lieutenant governor.

Liebman also argues that Paterson would get very little out of filling the job. He said the lieutenant governor cannot break ties on legislation, but only on nominations, amendments to bills and committee chairmanships.

A lieutenant governor, he said, can break ties on leadership votes, but can’t provide a vote to ensure a quorum to bring bills to the floor, which has been the problem for the past month.

“It gets the governor very little,” he said.

Peter Galie, a state constitutional law expert at Canisius College, called Paterson’s legal argument “a real stretch.” The constitution, he said, does ban him from filling the job.

“He seems to take the view that a crisis creates constitutional power. I think that is a dangerous doctrine,” Galie said.

Paterson, moreover, misspoke when he said the line of succession is in question, Galie said. He noted that if the Senate president is unable to succeed the governor, the next in line is the Assembly speaker.

Possible test today

Cuomo’s office did not return calls to comment.

Administration aides and Senate Democrats predicted the first test will come today, when Paterson calls the Senate to special session for the 21st time since the June coup. Republicans are under court order to show up to provide a quorum. Whether they will show is uncertain, Republicans said. If they do, would the Democrats seek to put the leadership issue to a new vote if Ravitch can break the 31-31 tie?

The agenda for the session does not include putting to a vote who actually leads the chamber. But Kauffmann did not rule out a change in the agenda. Republicans believe court action could delay the session.

“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary action,” said Sen. Malcolm A. Smith, the Queens Democrat, who claims he still holds the Senate president’s position after what Democrats say was an illegal coup.

But Republicans noted that less than 24 hours before Paterson’s action, the sides had been in the governor’s office negotiating a Senate deal. They all emerged touting progress.

“We were on the 99-yard line,” said Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane. “This is not helpful. It will make some of the people willing to reach an amicable solution pull back.”