Still, Penny Venetis, assistant director of the constitutional litigation clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark, said that overzealous law enforcement could be counterproductive.

Capital also offers a general litigation clinic, a mediation clinic, a family advocacy clinic, and a small business clinic.

Over the years, the dual involvement with the A.C.L.U. and the litigation clinic has enabled him to take on a number of high-profile cases, including one in which the F.B.I. investigated a student who requested information on left- wing organizations as part of a school assignment.

"He's never demonstrated that he's the caliber of what we've come to expect," said Frank Askin, a professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark, who founded its constitutional litigation clinic.

The son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, he has been a member of the Pace faculty for more than a year as clinical professor and supervising lawyer at the environmental litigation clinic of the university's law school in White Plains.

"I can't fault his behavior on the court," said Frank Askin, the director of the constitutional litigation clinic at Rutgers Law School, who unsurprisingly prefers less conservative judges.

Eric Neisser, director of the constitutional litigation clinic at the Rutgers Law School in Newark, said the Public Advocate's office was "unique in the country because it is designed to insure other agencies are following the State Constitution."

"I think he had every opportunity to explain himself; I don't have any question about that," said Frank Askin, the director of the constitutional litigation clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark.

Frank Askin, the director of the constitutional litigation clinic at the Rutgers law school in Newark, who had opposed Justice Verniero's appointment, said that "he was not an ideologue" and that he had written "thoughtful and pragmatic" decisions.