Expecting Kaye
-
- January
- 17
The term of New York’s Chief Judge Judith Kaye expires in March. She’s applied for re-appointment and most court observers expect Gov. Spitzer to consent. More on that in a second.
But, legally, Kaye has to compete for the job with six other candidates forwarded by the state Commission on Judicial Nomination, a screening committee. It announced the names Wednesday; along with Kaye, they are Richard Andrias (a mid-level appellate court judge), George Carpinello (a private lawyer), Jeh Johnson (lawyer), Steven Krane (lawyer), Thomas Mercure (mid-level judge) and David Schultz (lawyer).
  Spitzer may select Kaye because he agrees with the fellow Democrat on judicial philosophy. But there’s also another reason: it’s effectively a free pick.
 Technically, she would be appointed for another 14-year term. But practically, Kaye can only serve until Dec. 31, 2008, because then she will have reached the mandatory retirement age, 70. At that point, Spitzer can select someone else to finish Kaye’s term.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 3:11 pm by Yancey Roy.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Email This
All judges should be forced to retire at age 70. There are too many conflicts with those going senile and those that refuse to give the younger lawyers a shot at the bench.
The old timers in politics just don’t know how much damage they are really doing to the political parties by not stepping aside. These guys only care about themsleves. They never did or never will care about the future of their own policial parties.
That is why we need real reform in ALBANY MR. SPITZER.
The Republican Senate should be indicative enough to show you what can happen when people hang around too long.