State of New York Court of Appeals

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The New York Court of Appeals is New York's highest appellate court, created in 1847, replacing the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors. Its 1842 neoclassical courthouse is located in New York's capital, Albany.

Jurisdiction

According to the New York Constitution, the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals is limited to the "review of questions of law except where the judgment is of death."^[1]

Case load

In 2007, the court decided 185 appeals, 135 of which were civil, and 50 were criminal.^[2] The court decided 1,440 motions in the same year.

The court's justices

Selection of justices

The New York Court of Appeals consists of seven judges; one chief judge and six associate judges. Previously, judges were elected to the seat on the bench, judges are now appointed by the governor to 14-year terms.

Qualifications

To be considered a qualified candidate to the New York Court of Appeals, a person must have been admitted to practice law for at least five years.^[3] This is described in the New York Constitution, Article Six, Section 20, which is found here.

Judge allowance increase

In October of 2009, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman announced via a webcast available only to the judiciary that he was authorizing a doubling of the annual amount paid to judges for expenses - from $5,000 to $10,000. In 2008, the New York Office of Court Administration paid out approximately $6 million to judges receiving the $5,000 "allowance". This increase will take the total expense stipend outlay to roughly $12 million per year. The Office of Court Administration's total annual budget in 2008 was $2.27 billion. ^[4]

Lippman cited the lack of pay raises for judges in the last ten years as reason why the increase is needed. There are three suits pending before the Court of Appeals regarding the matter of judicial pay in New York. Two of the suits were brought by individual judges and one was brought by the court system. Lippman has recused himself from hearing the cases, which are scheduled to begin on January 12, 2010. ^[4]

Current justices

Chief justice

On January 13, 2009, Governor Paterson appointed Judge Jonathan Lippman to be Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. This was to replace Judge Judith Kaye. Lippman was formerly a judge on the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division.

Notable decisions

The court is notable for being one of only two states to declare the death penalty statute unconstitutional, which the court did in the case of People v. LaValle in June 2004.

In July 2006, the court, applying rational-basis scrutiny, held 4-2 (Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt recused) that the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of same-sex marriage. Judge Robert Smith, writing for the three-judge plurality, stated that "[w]hether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the Legislature."^[5] Judge Victoria Graffeo concurred. Chief Judge Judith Kaye, in a dissent signed onto by Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, criticized the majority opinion. Arguing that homosexuals are a "suspect class" and that the law infringes "the fundamental right to marry," Kaye stated the law warranted "heightened or strict scrutiny" rather than the rational-basis analysis applied by the majority.^[6]

Notable judges

The Court's most famous judge was Benjamin Cardozo (who was later appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States). Cardozo authored many landmark cases during his tenure, including Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail, MacPherson v. Buick and Wood v. Lucy. During the late 20th century, the most famous judge on the Court of Appeals was Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, who was elected to the court in 1972 and appointed Chief Judge in 1985. He was renowned for the fine quality of his legal opinions. Wachtler's career ended disastrously in November 1992 when the FBI arrested him for stalking a wealthy woman with whom he had previously been having an affair.

History of the court

To replace the Court for the Correction of Errors and the Court of Chancery, the Court of Appeals was created out of the state constitution of 1846. The court originated with eight members, four were elected and four were chosen each year by the Supreme Court justices. With the amendment to the constitution in 1869, all judges of the court were replaced with seven new judges that were elected by general ballot in 1870. These judges served terms of 14 years.^[7]

Differences in nomenclature

In New York, unlike most other states, the court designated as the "Supreme Court of the State of New York" is the trial court rather than the highest court of the state; this nomenclature sometimes leads to confusion. Another quirk that leads to confusion is in the titles of the jurists who sit on the court. In most states and the federal court system, members of the highest court are titled "Justices." In New York, the members of the Court of Appeals are titled "Judges," while those who preside in the lower trial courts are known as "Justices." In New York, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals is also the head of the court system's administration, and is thus also known as the Chief Judge of the State of New York. Currently, that is Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, who is spearheading an effort to reform criminal sentencing by considering the collateral consequences of criminal charges.

External links

• New York State Court of Appeals
• New York State Unified Court System
• New York Official Reports Site
• New York Official Reports for the Court of Appeals
• Caseload crisis in court
• New York Court of Appeals Annual Report 2007

References

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

The New York Project on Judgepedia

Supreme Court Supreme Court, Appellate Division Federal court of appeal

Federal eastern district for New York Federal western district for New York Federal northern district for New York Federal southern district for New York