Asian American judges remain underrepresented in NY’s courts
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Members of the Asian American Judges Association of New York, including its president, New York County Civil Court Supervising Judge Shahabuddeen Ally (left), and Queens Supreme Court Judges Ushir Pandit-Durant (third from right) and Karen Gopee (right). Photo via AAJANY
By Jacob Kaye
As it approaches its 10 year anniversary and as it marks the start of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Asian American Judges Association of New York issued its annual report on the inclusion of Asian American judges in New York’s court system.
As has historically been the case, the report found that Asian Americans are among the least represented racial or ethnic group within the state’s judiciary. Though AAPI individuals make up a little more than 9 percent of the state’s population, and over 14 percent of New York City’s population, less than 5 percent of the state’s judges identify as AAPI.
“The Asian American legal community and judicial community has work to do to get our footing in the judiciary,” said Shahabuddeen Ally, the supervising judge of New York City Civil Court and the president of the Asian American Judges Association of New York.
In 2020, at the height of the racial justice movement following the police killing of George Floyd, then-Chief Judge Janet DiFiore commissioned former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to compile a report on bias and racial issues within New York’s court system.
Among the report’s findings was the lack of representation of Asian American and Pacific Islanders on the bench. At the time of the report, around 2.6 percent of the bench was of AAPI descent.
A bulk of the state’s 61 AAPI judges have been either elected or appointed to the bench in the last five years, a sign of improvement, Ally said. Over the course of the past several years, the Asian American Judges Association has nearly doubled its membership. Around 45 percent of AAPI judges have been on the bench for six years or less.
But large disparities remain.
Though a vast majority of the state’s AAPI judges sit on the bench within the five boroughs, the disparity between the number of Asian Americans on the bench and in the city’s population is particularly large.
That’s even more true in Queens, where over 27 percent of the borough’s population is AAPI but there are only 14 AAPI judges serving on the bench.
In his 2020 report, Johnson said that “Latinx and Asian populations are the most underrepresented on the bench [in Queens].”
But still, representation isn’t higher in any other borough. There are 14 AAPI judges serving in Manhattan, 10 in Brooklyn, nine in the Bronx and three in Staten Island, according to the report.
Large disparities also exist within top judicial roles.
There are currently only three Asian American Judges Association of New York members in leadership roles in the courts. Toko Serita serves as the statewide coordinating judge for Problem Solving Courts, John Landsden serves as the supervising judge for Queens’ Housing Court and Ally serves as the supervising judge of New York City Civil Court. There are no AAPI judges serving as administrative judges.
Ally said that shortly after Johnson issued his report on racial issues within the court system, the former Homeland Security secretary said that diversifying the bench and the inclusion of the Asian American community within the judiciary lays in the hands of those who make the decisions.
“So, I asked then-Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks who are the hands?” Ally said. “They are the chief administrative judge’s hands, the chief judge’s hands.”
Ally, who was advocating for his members in Albany on Monday, said that he’s already had conversations with both now-Chief Judge Rowan Wilson and incoming Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas, and that he feels “optimistic” that they’re taking the representation issue seriously.
I am very hopeful that we have a partner in inclusion and that both of them, Wilson and Zayas, have expressed interest in inclusion,” Ally said.
Lucian Chalfen, the spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration, said that court leaders are aware of the gaping disparity among Asian American judges and that they are making efforts to correct it.
“We have been and continue to be both aware and mindful in our continuing efforts, at having people who represent the court system reflect all New Yorkers, in both our judicial and non-judicial positions,” Chalfen said.
“We have made great strides in that regard of the non-judicial employees who we hire, and we encourage the same mindfulness to the judges who are appointed and elected statewide,” Chalfen added.
Last year, Karen Lin became the first East Asian woman elected to the Civil Court bench in Queens.
Lin said that a major motivation behind her campaign was the findings of Johnson’s report.
“I wish in 2023, we weren't still talking about first, but it was the fact that there are so few [Asian American judges] that motivated me to run,” Lin told the Eagle.
Unlike Lin, a majority of New York’s AAPI judges were appointed to the bench, not elected.
Of the elected AAPI judges currently serving on one of the city’s Civil Court benches, nine were elected in Manhattan and three were elected in Queens, according to the report. There are currently no sitting AAPI Civil Court judges who were elected in either the Bronx, Brooklyn or Staten Island.
The numbers are similar for Supreme Court elections. Queens has had five AAPI judges elected to the bench in recent years, Manhattan has had three, Brooklyn has one and Staten Island and the Bronx have had none.
“We do have AAPI members in the Bronx and Richmond County but the point I'm talking about is elected judges and that's a very different animal, because it takes a lot of work to get elected,” Ally said. “We've never elected someone in the Bronx, Richmond and only one in Brooklyn. It’s either Queens or Manhattan.”
Representation on the bench matters and lends to the court’s system’s legitimacy, said Queens Supreme Court Justice Karen Gopee.
“When there is representation and diversity on the bench, it creates more legitimacy for the court and for the process, and for anyone coming into the court – whether it's a victim or being accused – to feel comfortable, to feel like they have a voice and that the system is not against them,” Gopee said.
Ally, who has served as president of the Asian American Judges Association of New York for the past year, said that he’s proud to be presiding over the organization as it hits its 10 year anniversary and hopes that the marker helps contribute to the AAPI diversity strides he and his members hope to make in the coming years.
“To make iit 10 years means that we have lasting power, we've got a decade, we've increased our numbers and we're only getting better and we're only getting bigger and stronger,” he said.
As the organization aims to continue to grow over the next year, Ally said he has one goal on his mind – inclusion.
“We want to be included – when there's conversations to be had, we want to be included; when there's a decision to be made, we want to be included; when there's a thought about who should get [an open position], we want to be included,” Ally said. “I think once that happens, the numbers come – the numbers are the byproduct of all that.”
