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Janet DiFiore, chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, says she will step down at the end of August even as lawmakers in Albany consider tougher gun and abortion laws, measures at the heart of the national debate whose legality can be determined by the state judiciary.
In an interview Monday morning, Judge DiFiore, 66, who oversees the entire state judiciary, said there was no triggering event for her resignation, but that she was ready to pursue other opportunities after more than six years on the job. which included fierce criticism from some of the judges and court officials she presided over and lawmakers who were upset by her rulings.
“I’ve made my contribution,” she said, adding that she doesn’t have another job waiting for her but feels it’s a “convenient time” to move on. However, she admitted that there will be “one more chapter in my professional career”.
“What it is, I’m not sure at this point,” she said.
The Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals, which has seven members, is the highest judicial office in New York. Judge DiFiore will be replaced by an acting chief justice chosen by the court’s six other justices until a successor is appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, and confirmed by the state Senate, which is also controlled by a Democratic supermajority.
Judge DiFiore, the former Westchester County district attorney — and former Republican who switched parties more than 15 years ago — was nominated to the court in 2015 by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned last August. She was the second female chief justice since Judith S. Kay and one of six Court of Appeals justices appointed by Mr. Cuomo. Her resignation will give Ms. Hochul a second appointment to the New York Supreme Court; the first was Shirley Troutman last year.
The Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal has a 14-year term. The job requires oversight not only of the Supreme Court itself, but also of the state’s vast judicial system, which has a $3 billion budget and includes more than 1,350 state judges, along with another 1,850 city and village judges and more than 14,000 non-judicial employees .
The New York court could serve as a bulwark for conservative rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently struck down abortion rights and limited a New York law that regulates the carrying of concealed weapons.
But on Monday, Judge Di Fiore pushed back on such matters, saying her proudest moments include managing the chronically overburdened judiciary, maintaining an objective balance and conducting proceedings during the Covid crisis. The pandemic has severely curtailed in-person proceedings in the state in most cases, with Court of Appeals arguments held virtually rather than in the baroque confines of an Albany courtroom, for example.
“It’s a brilliant challenge every day,” she said.
Judge DiFiore’s legacy may be best defined by a sweeping 32-page opinion she wrote in April for a divided court that found Democratic leaders violated the state constitution when they drew new congressional and state Senate districts. The opinion, by a four-judge majority, also said the Democratic-drawn congressional districts violated the state’s express ban on partisan gerrymandering.
The decision angered Democrats, who openly accused the chief justice of engaging in an illegal power grab.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat from New York in the House who has been one of the leading critics of the redistricting decision, made his feelings about Judge DiFiore clear on Monday. “Good riddance,” he said in a statement.
The judge also had a bitter conflict with Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Judicial Officers Association. Last year, Mr. Quirk was suspended for 30 days for posting Judge DiFiore’s address online amid a battle over coronavirus vaccine mandates and his claim that she had failed to respond to what he said were false allegations in racism against the union and its leadership.
Mr. Quirk filed a complaint with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, accusing the judge of fostering a “systemic culture of intimidation.” He later gave a scathing interview to the New York Daily News in which he said he would stay on the job to crack the judge.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the court, said on Monday of Mr Quirk: “In his many years as a trade union leader, both doing his job and exercising undue influence, he has never come across anyone – certainly not a woman – who oppose him.”
In a statement Monday afternoon, Ms. Hochul said Judge DiFiore had “dedicated her career to the people of New York” and praised the judge’s leadership of the court system “especially during the unprecedented times of the Covid-19 pandemic.” She added that she will review a state commission’s recommendations for new judges as soon as they are made.
Jonathan Lipman, Judge DiFiore’s predecessor, said it was clear that there were liberal and conservative strands on the court, both in criminal and civil justice.
“But I don’t think this chief justice lived or died by whether people thought of her as liberal, conservative or centrist,” he said. “She had her own views. She took every opportunity as it came and I think she was a strong leader.
He said he doesn’t think anyone predicted the recent tampering ruling. “And it had national significance,” Mr. Lipman said. “And she did what she thought was right.”
State Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat from Manhattan’s West Side who chairs the Judiciary Committee, had kind but cautionary comments about Judge DiFiore’s resignation, including criticism of the court’s rulings on workers’ and tenants’ rights and criminal justice.
“Over the past several years, the Court of Appeals has become increasingly out of touch with the needs and desires of New Yorkers,” Mr. Hoylman said. “It’s time for a new direction in our judiciary.”
State Sen. Michael Gianaris, the chamber’s second-ranking leader, added that the judge’s resignation “allows for a necessary recalibration of our state’s highest court after a series of misguided decisions” about jobs, corporations and law enforcement personnel.
“I encourage Governor Hochul to select a candidate who better reflects our state’s values, and I look forward to a more robust confirmation process to ensure that happens,” he said.
Judge DiFiore also came under fire from other state judges in 2020 when her administration, citing the need for deep budget cuts, denied requests from 46 of 49 judges who wanted to continue serving past the retirement age of the statute for judges at age 70 – a step that was previously granted almost routinely.
The dispute became so bitter that 10 justices joined in a pair of unusual lawsuits against Judge DiFiore and an administrative board that had voted unanimously to fire the older judges. They alleged that they were victims of age discrimination.
Judge Di Fiore, who said the judiciary was trying to avoid layoffs, defended the layoffs, calling them “the most painful decision yet.”
Mr Chalfen, the courts spokesman, said when more funding became available last year, older judges were invited to reapply to continue working and many returned to the judiciary.
David B. Sacks, a retired Appellate Division judge and now a lawyer in private practice whose firm handled one of the justices’ lawsuits, said Monday that during the litigation Judge DiFiore “demonstrated an unnecessary intransigence toward any settlement of the case proposed by the judges.”
Mr Chalfen, the court’s spokesman, said in response: “Hard decisions are what executives make. This is what follows when one runs the third branch of government.
Nicholas Fandos and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
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