Janet DiFiore
Janet DiFiore was the New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge. She assumed office on January 21, 2016. She left office on August 31, 2022.
In New York, the position of chief judge is a specific seat on the court (similar to the Supreme Court of the United States) rather than a peer-selected leadership position. DiFiore was nominated as chief judge by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in December 2015 to fill the seat left vacant by Jonathan Lippman, who reached the mandatory retirement age in 2015.[1][2][3] DiFiore was sworn in as chief judge by Cuomo on February 9, 2016.[4] To read more about judicial selection in New York, click here.
DiFiore announced on July 11, 2022, that she would resign from the court of appeals on August 31, 2022.[5] To learn more about this vacancy, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[6] DiFiore received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[7] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
DiFiore received a B.A. from C.W. Post College at Long Island University in 1977 and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law in 1981.[2][8] Prior to her appointment to the State of New York Court of Appeals, she was a district attorney in Westchester County from 2006 to 2015, a justice on the New York Supreme Court 9th Judicial District from 2003 to 2005, and a judge on the Westchester County Court from 1999 to 2002.[2]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[9]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[10]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Janet
DiFiore
New York
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat before 2020
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
DiFiore was a registered Repulican until she changed her registration to Democrat in 2007. She ran for Westchester County judge as a Republican in 2005, and as a Democrat in 2009 and 2013. She donated $530 to Democratic candidates. She was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
State supreme court judicial selection in New York
- See also: Judicial selection in New York
The seven judges of the New York Court of Appeals are selected through the assisted appointment method. The governor appoints each new judge from a list of qualified nominees submitted by a judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by the New York State Senate.[11][12]
Judges serve 14-year terms. To remain on the court, a judge must be renominated by the governor and reconfirmed by the Senate. Judges must retire at the end of the year in which they turn 70 years old; however, retired judges may serve until the end of the year in which they turn 76 years old if they are certified as competent every two years.[11][12]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a person must be a resident of New York and must have been admitted to practice law in New York for at least 10 years.[11][12]
Chief judge
The chief judge of the court of appeals is selected through the same assisted appointment method as other judges on the court and serves in that role for a full term. The position of chief judge is a specific seat on the court rather than a temporary leadership position.[11][12]
Vacancies
Midterm vacancies are filled by assisted appointment. The governor appoints a new judge from a list of qualified nominees submitted by a judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by the New York State Senate. The newly appointed judge serves a full 14-year term.[11][12]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ New York Times, "After Delay, Janet DiFiore Is Confirmed as New York’s Chief Judge," January 21, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, "Governor Cuomo nominates Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore to serve as chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals," December 1, 2015
- ↑ New Rochelle Daily Voice, "New Rochelle Bar Association honors chief judge of state's top court," April 28, 2015
- ↑ Courthouse News Service,"DiFiore Inducted to Lead N.Y.'s Highest Court," February 9, 2016
- ↑ Bloomberg Law, "New York Top Judge DiFiore to Depart from Court of Appeals (2)," accessed July 12, 2022
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ State of New York Court of Appeals, "Chief Judge Janet DiFiore," accessed August 6, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: New York," accessed September 12, 2021
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 New York State, "The Constitution of the State of New York," accessed September 12, 2021 (Article VI)
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