Electing Supreme Court Judges in New York State: Why Your Vote Hardly Matters
Cheryl Roberts
September 13, 2020
Cheryl Roberts spoke about electing New York State Supreme Court Justices – and why your vote hardly matters. She lost out in a 2019 bid for one of those judgeships.
Despite its name, the State Supreme Court is not New York’s highest court, but actually the lowest, the trial level. Next up is the Appellate Division, and the highest panel is the Court of Appeals. There are almost 400 Supreme Court judges divided among 13 multi-county judicial districts. Albany is in the seven-county 3rd Judicial District.
Roberts explained that the State Supreme Court handles cases like divorces, mortgages, foreclosures, and felony crimes (most of which though, upstate, are heard in county courts). Another key jurisdiction is Article 78 proceedings, challenging governmental actions.*
New York is one of only a few states electing (rather than appointing) such judges. Roberts characterized our system as very political and “incredibly unfair.” The party nominees in judgeship elections are chosen in judicial conventions, by delegates elected in primaries. In practice, because of the large numbers of delegates, and those primaries being under the radar, there are never contested ones, the delegates being simply picked by party leaders.
Our Third Judicial District used to go both ways politically, and Democratic and Republican leaders would often agree on bipartisan endorsements. Nowadays Democrats typically prevail. At some point the district’s seven Democratic county chairmen came to a deal divvying up the judgeships among themselves. In 2019 it was seemingly Columbia County’s turn, and the county backed Roberts. However, Albany – the most populous and hence most powerful county in the district, with the most delegates – backed Justin Corcoran. He had been (after a big fight) the party’s nominee in 2014, but had lost the election. This time Corcoran did win both the nomination and election.
Though knowing her bid was doomed, Roberts says she stayed in the race, to highlight a need for more diversity among the the judges (one might remember a bunch of letters-to-the-editor at the time so arguing for her candidacy). She also wanted to throw a spotlight on the system’s undemocratic cronyism. Though changing it would require a constitutional amendment – which in turn would require the initiative of the state legislature. Good luck with that, in the People’s Democratic Republic of New York.