Over the years I have consulted for numerous candidates for judge. Because of this, I take a particular interest in the never-ending debate on judicial selection in New York.
I’m basically agnostic on the question of which system produces the best judges but I do have one strong belief – no system is perfect!
Appointments, elections, merit selections, panels, etc. – all of them will produce great judges, good judges, mediocre judges, bad judges and crooks.
But most others are not agnostic. They are advocates for one system and can only see the bad results of the systems they oppose and are blind to how their preferred schemes actually work.
I was reminded of this on Wednesday morning when I attended a hearing before the State Assembly Judiciary Committee on how best to select State Supreme Court Justices.
One of the main speakers was New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, who testified, “We face a judicial selection crisis of unprecedented dimensions”. Cardozo’s testimony referred to “at least three Supreme Court justices indicted in Brooklyn, a Queens Supreme Court judge removed from the bench because of improper conduct and others disciplined for improper behavior”. His written testimony included footnotes listing both Justice Garsons, former Justice Barron & former Justice Blackburne.
Cardozo also spoke about an earlier judicial crisis 32 years ago, which he says was solved through the work of among others, himself, which set up a merit appointment system for Court of Appeals judges (the highest court in New York State).
But because Cardozo is not an agnostic, he did not mention the most famous Judge selected under the merit appointment system we have to produce Court of Appeals Judges.
That Judge was one of only three Judges selected under merit appointment to be the Chief Judge of the State of New York.
His name is Sol Wachtler. And he is famous because he went to Federal prison for systematically harassing his mistress for over a year and threatening her daughter.
If I was an advocate against merit appointments, I’d say that 33% of the Chief Judges selected has gone to Federal prison, which is quite a bit worse than the percentages of bad judges selected by any political leader, ever.
But instead I’ll repeat my belief – no system is perfect.