Supreme Court of the State of New York

From Judgepedia

The Supreme Court of the State of New York includes 62 courts--one Supreme Court for each County. These courts are the highest trial courts in New York State, and are of general jurisdiction.

The New York Supreme Courts are not New York's courts of last resort. The Court of Appeals is the highest court in New York.^[1]

Jurisdiction

The statewide Supreme Court

"...generally hears cases outside the authority of the lower courts such as civil matters beyond the monetary limits of the lower courts’ jurisdiction, divorce, separation and annulment proceedings, and criminal prosecutions of felonies." ("The New York State Courts: An Introductory Guide", a publication released by the New York State Unified Court System)^[2]

Criminal/Civil jurisdiction

Outside New York City, the Supreme Courts typically handle large civil cases. These courts also have the authority to hear criminal felony cases, but felony cases are usually heard in the County Courts. In the 5 New York City districts however, each Supreme Court has a criminal term, or division, which handles large felony cases. The New York City Supreme Courts also have civil terms which handle civil cases. Smaller civil cases and less serious criminal cases are handled in other courts.^[3][4][5]

Appeals

Appeals from Supreme Court decisions go to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which is New York's intermediate appellate court divided into four appellate departments. Notwithstanding the departments, the Appellate Division is one court, and its decisions are binding on all lower courts unless there is a conflict among the appellate departments. New York's highest appellate court is the New York Court of Appeals; appeals are taken from the four departments to the Court of Appeals; decisions from the Court of Appeals are binding throughout the state.^[1]

Judicial districts

The counties are grouped into judicial districts from which the justices are elected. Judgeships are then allotted among the counties of the district. There are 13 judicial districts in New York.

1st District 2nd District 3rd District 4th District 5th District 6th District 7th District

8th District 9th District 10th District 11th District 12th District 13th District

Election

New York Supreme Court justices are elected to 14-year terms. In practice, most of the power of selecting judges belongs to local political party organizations who cross-endorse each others' candidates. Regardless of the term for which they are elected, justices retire at the end of the year in which they reach the age of seventy years, though subject to annual review justices may serve till the age of 76, a replacement being chosen to a fresh 14-year term that November with effect from the start of the following year.

In the Spring of 2007, a federal district court in Brooklyn declared the method of nominating Supreme Court justices to be unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Judge John Gleeson stated: "A state may decide whether or not voters will be the best choosers of judges. But it may not say one thing – 'The justices of the supreme court shall be chosen by the electors,' N.Y. Const. art. VI § 6(c) – and do quite another, as they have here by effectively transferring the power to choose major party leaders. Put simply . . . the state may not pass off the will of the party leaders as the will of the people. Because that is exactly what the New York judicial convention system does, it violates the First Amendment." In late August 2006, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed Gleeson’s ruling, which mandates open primaries until the state legislature builds a new system. The old system remains in place under a stay for the 2006 judicial election process. On February 20, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States granted petition for certiorari in this case. The case will be argued on October 3, 2007, with the decision expected by June 2008.

Because the number of elected Supreme Court Justices is far less than the number of judges needed in many counties, there are provisions for judges of the New York City Civil Court, New York City Criminal Court, New York Family Court, and New York Court of Claims to be designated as Acting Supreme Court Justices.^[1]

2009 General Election

See also: 2009 contested judicial election results

The New York State general election was held on November 3, 2009. Candidates and results are listed below.

1st District:

• Lucy Billings (D) (elected)
• Sherilyn Dandridge (R) ^[6]

3rd District:

• James Gilpatric, (D), (I), (CON) (elected)
• Jill Dunn, Republican ^[6][7][8]

4th District:

• Barry D. Kramer, (D), (CON) (elected)
• Thomas Mercure, (R) (elected)
• Richard B. Meyer, (R)
• Brian S. Stewart, (D) ^[6][9]

5th District, 2 vacancies:

• James Tormey, (R), (I) (elected)
• James McCarthy, (D), (R), (I), (CON)(elected)
• Walter Hafner, (D), (CON) ^[6][10]

7th District:

• Paloma A. Capanna, (D)
• Ken Fisher, (R), (I), (CON) (elected)
• La Marr Jackson, (D)
• Alex Renzi, (R), (I), (CON) (elected)^[6][11]

8th District:

• Christopher Burns, (D), (R), (I), (WOR), (CON) (elected)
• Shirley Troutman, (D), (R), (I), (WOR) (elected)
• John O’Donnell, (D), (I), (WOR), (CON) (elected)
• Jeffrey Voelkl, (R), (CON)^{[6][12][13][14]}

9th District:

• Orazio Bellantoni, (R), (I), (CON), (RTL) (elected)
• James Alexander Burke, (RTL)
• Mary N. Clark, (RTL)
• Jeffrey Cohen, (D), (I), (CON), (WOR) (elected)
• Francesca Connolly, (D), (WOR) (elected)
• James Hubert, (D), (I), (WOR)
• William L. Maher, (R)
• David L. Steinberg, (D), (WOR)
• Charles E. Stewart, (R), (CON)
• Stasia T. Vogel, (RTL)
• Charles Wood, (R), (CON) (elected)^{[6][15][16][17]}

10th District:

• Stephen A. Bucaria, (D), (R), (I), (CON) (elected)
• Robert A. Bruno, (R), (CON) (elected)
• Barbara Byrne, (WOR)
• Daniel W. Donnelly, (I)
• Elizabeth H. Emerson, (D) , (R), (I), (CON), (WOR) (elected)
• David Goodsell, (D), (I), (WOR)
• Randall Hinrichs, (D), (R), (CON) (elected)
• Patrick Leis, (D), (R), (I), (CON) (elected)
• James P. McCormack, (D), (I), (WOR)
• Stephanie G. Ovadia, (WOR)
• Thomas P. Phelan, (R), (CON) (elected)
• Andrew L. Spence, (WOR) ^[6][18][19]

11th District:

• Robert Beltrani, (R), (CON)
• John F. Casey, (R), (CON)
• Joseph F. Kasper, (R)
• Daniel Lewis, (D) (elected)
• Diccia T. Pineda-Kirwan, (D) (elected)
• Thomas D. Raffaele, (D) (elected)^{[6][19][20][21]}

12th District:

• Sharon A. M. Aarons, (D)
• Loraine Corsa, (CON)
• Lucindo Suarez, (D)
• Kenneth Thompson, Jr., (D), (CON)
• John H. Wilson, (R), (CON)

(Final results are currently unavailable)

13th District:

• Philip Minardo, (D), (R), (I), (CON) ^[6][19][22]

Current Justices

Harold Beeler Eileen Bransten Richard Braun Joan Carey Matthew Cooper Marylin G. Diamond Laura Drager Carol Edmead

Saralee Evans Paul G. Feinman Nicholas Figueroa Fern Fisher Bernard J. Fried Marcy Friedman Ira Gammerman Phyllis Gangel-Jacob

Ellen Gesmer Judith J. Gische Emily Jane Goodman Shlomo Hagler Sherry Heitler Carol E. Huff Debra James Deborah A. Kaplan

Barbara Kapnick Shirley Kornreich Edward Lehner Doris Ling-Cohan Joan Lobis Richard B. Lowe Joan Madden William McCooe

Douglas McKeon Donna Mills Eileen Rakower Charles E. Ramos Saliann Scarpulla Alice Schlesinger Martin Schoenfeld Melvin L. Schweitzer

Marilyn Shafer Peter Sherwood Martin Shulman Karen Smith Jane S. Solomon John Stackhouse Michael D. Stallman Milton Tingling

Walter Tolub Laura Visitacion-Lewis Lottie Wilkins Paul Wooten Louis B. York

External links

• New York Unified Court System
• American Judicature Society: "Judicial Selection in the States: New York"
• New York Supreme Court, New York County, Civil Branch
• New York Supreme Court, New York County, Criminal Branch
• New York Official Reports for the New York Court System
• New York Court Structure

References

Portions of this article have been taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.

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