On November 23, 2022, the New York Commission on Judicial Nomination transmitted to the Governor its list of seven nominees for the seat on the Court of Appeals left vacant by the departure of Chief Judge DiFiore. In alphabetical order, the nominees were:
By law, the Governor is required to select a single nominee from the list between 15 and 30 days after it issues. With the Governor’s deadline looming, we collected some thoughts from litigators and academics about who they think should sit in the center seat. We’re happy to share those with you now.
Professor Noah Rosenblum, Choosing a New Chief to Chart a New Course.
- Professor Rosenblum is an Assistant Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law, where he was previously the Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History. He teaches and writes in the fields of Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and Legal History, and is a frequent commentator on public law and New York State courts.
- For Rosenblum, the Court experienced a “remarkable loss of respect” under Chief Judge DiFiore and that the “first task of a new Chief Judge is to reverse this decline and undo DiFiore’s damage.” In his view, Stoughton is the candidate who “most clearly bring balance to our system,” has the “deepest demonstrated record of using the law to support the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” and could “help restore the Court to national prominence.”
Alice Fontier & Sasha Kliger, Make the Court of Appeals the Court New York Deserves.
- Alice Fontier is the Managing Director of NDS Harlem and, before that, was the Managing Director of the Criminal Defense Practice at the Bronx Defenders. She has been a practicing criminal defense attorney for nineteen years after graduating from NYU School of Law. Sasha Kliger is a law student at N.Y.U.
- For Fontier and Kliger, “there are two candidates on the short list who rise above the others and would bring crucial balance to the Court of Appeals: Judge Edwina Richardson-Mendelson and Corey Stoughton.” Either of these two nominees, they assert, give the Governor an opportunity “to choose a Chief Judge who would center social and economic justice in their work, and make the Court of Appeals the court New York deserves.”
Matthew Bova, A Law Professor or a Civil Rights Attorney Could Be Just What We Need for Chief Judge.
- Matt Bova is Senior Appellate Counsel and Co-Director of Court of Appeals Litigation and the Impact Litigation Project at the Center for Appellate Litigation.
- For Bova, appointing a civil rights litigator or an academic would “go a long way towards improving the Court’s approach to doctrine, procedure, and practice.” Surveying the shortcomings in each category, Bova concludes that Ouellette, Gluck, or Stoughton would mark an important step towards “bringing about meaningful change that will enhance the quality of the court’s day-to-day work and its ultimate jurisprudence.”
Many thanks to the authors for contributing their thoughts, which of course are theirs alone and do not represent the views of TwentyEagle.
**UPDATE: On December 22, 2022, Governor Hochul nominated Judge Hector LaSalle to be the next Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. We collected reactions to the nomination here.
Posted on 2022-12-08.