2007 Issue 1 - New York City Bar Association

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J U D I C I A L S E L E C T I O N T A S K F O R C E for election from a judicial district (“the justices of the supreme court shall be chosen by the electors of the judicial district in which they are to serve”). However, solely for the purpose of nominating justices of the Supreme Court, each judicial district shall be subdivided into judicial convention districts consisting of either two or three assembly districts. Each position of justice of the Supreme Court presently filled by elections held within each judicial district shall be assigned to, and nominations shall be made from, one of the various judicial convention districts within each judicial district. Notwithstanding that a person may have been nominated from a particular judicial convention district, the person shall run at-large throughout the entire judicial district in which the judicial convention district is located. All registered voters residing in the judicial district shall be eligible to vote in the general election for justice of the Supreme Court. 2. The judicial convention districts shall be grouped into eight regional districts covering roughly the following geographical areas: (1) Long Island; (2) New York City; (3) Hudson Valley; (4) Capital Region; (5) Adirondacks; (6) Finger Lakes; (7) Southern Tier, and (8) Western New York (the “Regions”). Notwithstanding the foregoing, within a variance of one, each Region shall contain an equal number of judicial convention districts. An independent and diverse judicial qualification commission (“JQC”) shall be established within each Region. 3. JQCs should be established to review the qualification of candidates for all levels of judgeships, beginning with the Supreme, District and City Courts, the Civil Court of the City of New York, the Surrogate and County Courts and the Family Court outside the City of New York (collectively, the “Covered Judgeships”). 4. There shall be 21 members of each JQC. The Chief Judge, the Governor, the presiding Justices of each Appellate Division in which the Region sits and the highest ranking members of each party in the Senate and in the Assembly (collectively, the “Governmental Appointing Authorities”) shall appoint, from each Region, 15 to 21 (depending on the number of the members of the JQC to be formed) bar associations, law schools and/or not-for-profit civic or community organizations (collectively, the “Non-Governmental Appointing Authorities”), and each one of the Non- Governmental Appointing Authorities shall then in turn appoint one member of the JQC. The Governmental Appointing Authorities shall give consideration to achieving a broad representation of the communities within each Region when appointing the Non-Governmental Appointing Authorities, including race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual ori- T H E R E C O R D 112
J U D I C I A L S E L E C T I O N S Y S T E M I N N E W Y O R K S T A T E entation as diversity factors. The Non-Governmental Appointing Authorities shall rotate every three years. 57 5. In making appointments to the JQC, the Non-Governmental Appointing Authorities shall similarly give consideration to achieving a broad representation of the communities within each Region, including race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation as diversity factors. Three members of each JQC shall be non-lawyers. No more than __% of the members of each JQC shall be enrolled in the same political party. 58 When appointments of members of the JQC are being made by the Non-Governmental Appointing Authorities, an order shall be established in which they’ll make their appointments so that it can be determined when the __% limit has been reached. No individual may serve on a JQC for more than three consecutive years. 6. The Election Law should be amended to make clear that no person who has not completed the process of submitting his/her qualifications to the JQC shall have access to the ballot as a candidate for elective judicial office. Each JQC shall publish a list of all candidates who have submitted their qualifications to it, along with a list of the three most qualified candidates for the first vacancy for each court in a district and the two most qualified candidates for each additional vacancy in that court. 59 In the case of an incumbent seeking re-election, if the JQC reported the incumbent as highly qualified, that person would be the only one recommended for the vacancy. 60 The JQC shall also report those whom it has found to be unqualified. The JQCs in each Region shall report to the State Board of Elections the names of all persons who have completed the process of submitting their qualifications to the JQC for an election. 7. The conventions in each judicial convention district shall be held following the September primary of each year. The delegates to the convention shall be elected from within the judicial convention district at the September primary. Candidates for justice of the Supreme Court would be required to file a declaration with the appropriate board of elections at least 60 days prior to the date of the primary election. This would give the JQCs sufficient time to review their qualifications before the primary or judicial convention. Since candidates seeking a designation or 57. See supra note 35. 58. See supra note 36. 59. See supra note 37. 60. As mentioned earlier, the Task Force is not in favor of retention elections mainly because of their potential adverse effect on judicial independence. See Task Force 2003 Report at 39. 2 0 0 7 V O L. 6 2 , N O. 1 113
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2007 Issue 1 - New York City Bar Association

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