Jenny Rivera
2013 - Present
2027
12
Jenny Rivera is a judge of the New York Court of Appeals. She assumed office on February 11, 2013. Her current term ends on February 10, 2027.
Rivera first became a member of the New York Court of Appeals through assisted appointment. She was first appointed to the court by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in 2013 to the seat vacated by Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick. To read more about judicial selection in New York, 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.[1] Rivera received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Rivera received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, her J.D. from New York University School of Law, and her LL.M. from Columbia University School of Law. Rivera clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, then a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 1997, she joined the faculty of the City University of New York School of Law, where she would teach until her appointment to the court of appeals.[3][4]
Appointments
2013
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) appointed Rivera to the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, on January 15, 2013. Rivera's nomination followed Justice Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick's retirement on December 31, 2012, after having reached the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70. The state Senate confirmed Rivera to a 14-year term on the court on February 11, 2013.[5]
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.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- 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.
Jenny
Rivera
New York
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Rivera donated $156 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.[8][9]
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.[8][9]
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.[8][9]
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.[8][9]
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.[8][9]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder New York Court of Appeals |
Footnotes
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ CUNY School of Law ,"Hon. Jenny Rivera," accessed August 6, 2021
- ↑ Court of Appeals, State of New York, "Honorable Jenny Rivera," accessed August 6, 2021
- ↑ Governor of New York, "Governor Cuomo Announces Confirmation of Jenny Rivera to NYS Court of Appeals," December 10, 2012
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: New York," accessed September 12, 2021
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 New York State, "The Constitution of the State of New York," accessed September 12, 2021 (Article VI)
