New York bill aims for more diversity among judges in upstate cities

ALBANY — The Legislature has acted to redraw some judicial districts to potentially put more Black and brown judges into state courts in upstate cities, a change Democratic sponsors say would make courtrooms handling criminal and civil cases look more like their communities.

"We are exercising our constitutional duty," said Michael Gianaris, deputy majority leader of the Senate. "There is gross misrepresentation of people in this part of the state ... this is actually democracy showing itself."

The proposal gained final legislative approval on Thursday only after Republicans said the real purpose was to put Democratic judges in courts that handle election law disputes and other political cases with statewide impact.

The legislation will "put our courts firmly under the control of the Democratic machine," Erie County Republican Chairman Michael Kracker said Friday.

"This blatant backroom power grab — pushed through without a single public hearing ... will erode public trust and inject raw partisan politics into what was once a respected, independent branch of government," Kracker said.

If signed into law by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, Democrats say the measure would make it more likely for Black and brown judges, most often elected as Democrats, to receive cases in state Supreme Court that involve election law and that carry statewide impact.

The legislation states that "despite representing the vast majority of Black, Latino and Asian residents" upstate, the state courts in Western New York "suffered from a striking lack of justices representative of those communities." The state Office of Court administration’s 2024 survey found that the Fourth Judicial Department, based in Rochester, had one Black justice and no Hispanic or Asian justices.

Last year, the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Hochul approved a law to designate state courts in Erie, Albany, Westchester and New York City as the courts that can hear statewide election disputes between the major political parties.

Judicial elections in those counties are dominated by Democratic voters, in a state where Democrats have a more than 2:1 enrollment advantage over Republicans.

Democrats said the 2024 law was necessary to end "judge shopping" by Republicans in rural, heavily GOP counties to mount legal challenges to laws including election law. Those challenges came as Republicans have made gains in elections of state legislators and in the number of votes for governor.

Republicans have won several lower court decisions on political challenges under the current system, although many of those rulings were overturned in appellate courts with mostly Democratic-nominated judges.

Kracker urged Hochul, a Buffalo native, to veto the measure when it reaches her desk.

The measure was adopted along party lines after lengthy and sometimes heated debate Thursday.

Assmb. Mary Beth Walsh (R-Ballston) called the Democrats’ bill offensive. "It is either social engineering or pure partisanship or both," she said.

"It will essentially make sure there is one party to rule everyone else," said Assmb. Edward Ra (R-Garden City).

Republicans complained the bill was proposed too quickly in the closing, hectic days of the legislative session without proper review. They called for a delay, which would maintain the current court system to hear statewide election disputes into next year, which is a legislative election year.

"There is a diversity problem in the bench," said Assmb. Jonathan D. Rivera (D-Buffalo). "I think that is universally accepted ... waiting another year, kicking the can, seems imprudent in that we already know there is a problem."

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.