New York Law Blog

New York State’s Chief Judge Judith Kaye is being forced to retire because of age limit laws, and the governor’s office is analyzing a short list of replacements, one of who will take over the office on January 1. Judge Kaye has spent 16 years as the top judge in New York, presiding over not only New York’s Unified Court System but also the New York State Court of Appeals, which handle roughly 4 million cases a year. Just who is on the short list to replace Judge Kaye?

Names were due Sept. 8 to the state Commission on Judicial Nomination. From those, the 12-member panel will submit a list of seven candidates deemed qualified to the Democratic governor Dec. 1.

Associate Judges Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, 66, and Eugene F. Pigott Jr., 62, both confirmed to the New York Law Journal they are being considered. So have some lower court judges: Justice Jonathan Lippman, presiding justice of the Appellate Division, First Department; Appellate Division Justice Steven W. Fisher, of the Second Department; and state Supreme Court Justice Fern A. Fisher, the administrative judge of the New York City Civil Court.

Whomever will be Judge Kaye’s replacement, they will be walking into a 16 hours a day, seven days a week position. This is the longest a chief judge has held the highest ranking in the state of New York.

The federal government is preparing to pass a law making it legal to auction off flight slots at New York City’s three big airports: La Guardia, Kennedy International and Newark Liberty. The Department of Transportation wants to reduce air traffic congestion by eliminating some of the slots and then auctioning the rest off to airlines. The DoT believes that auctions of the sort could raise roughly $150 million to fund runway expansions and other needed airport upgrades. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who is in charge of the three airports, and a few lawmakers vehemently disagreed with the plan.

“Who’s got money to buy slots? The finance markets are closed,” said William R. DeCota, the authority’s director of aviation. “They keep saying an auction stimulates competition. I have more direct flights to more airports than anywhere in the world.”

Mr. DeCota added that if airlines that do not already fly into New York bought some of the auctioned slots, there are questions about where the new arrivals would park their planes since all of the existing terminals are leased to other airlines.

“It is simply shocking that the D.O.T. is unabashedly continuing this ideological battle despite the staunch opposition from the entire aviation community and the independent finding that the D.O.T. lacks the power under the law to implement the proposal in the first place,” Senator Charles E. Schumer said in a statement.

The Port Authority has said it will seek an injunction from the United State Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia to block the auctions if need be.

According to reports, the New York City family court system is completely overwhelmed with no help in sight. With massive budget cuts coming down from both Governor Patterson and Mayor Bloomberg ($1.2 billion and $1 billion by 2010, respectively), help isn’t likely to come soon. The overloaded court system is working as fast as possible, but many children are languishing in foster care for years waiting for their case to be heard in court.

"You have a certain exigency to cases involving children," Judge Ann Pfau, chief administrative judge for New York state courts. "You want to be able to resolve problems as quickly as possible, you just want stability for the child. Six months in criminal court case is different from six months in a family court case. Six months is a very long time for a child. We think about it all the time."

There are 47 judges assigned to Family Court in New York City, and about 146 statewide who handle more than 750,000 filings each year. In New York City, judges regularly have more than 2,000 cases pending, and can hear more than 50 cases per day.

Studies shows that 14 additional judges need to be added in New York City alone to lower the caseload, but with the budget cuts that is not likely to come. There are 17,000 children in the New York City foster care system, and they spend about an average of five years in foster care.