All but two Queens judicial candidates approved by city bar association
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The New York City Bar Association released its judicial candidate ratings on Tuesday. All but two candidates in Queens were approved by the organization. File photo via NYCBA
By Jacob Kaye
The New York City Bar Association on Tuesday released its ratings of judicial candidates running in competitive Democratic primary races throughout the five boroughs.
Like the Queens County Bar Association, which released their judicial ratings last week, the NYCBA “approved” all but two judicial candidates running for various spots on the World’s Borough’s bench.
Queens Surrogate’s Court candidate Cassandra Johnson, who currently serves as a Supreme Court justice in Queens and who has received the backing of the Queens County Democratic Party in the race, was given the city bar association's “approved” rating.
Johnson’s opponent in the race, Civil Court Judge Wendy Li, was rated “not approved” by the NYCBA. Li was also given the not approved rating by the Queens County Bar Association.
The rating could serve as a major blow to Li, who has vastly outraised and outspent Johnson in the bid for the Surrogate’s Court bench, which is largely considered one of the most coveted judicial positions in the borough.
Li, who has served on Civil Court benches in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens since 2018, told the Eagle last week that she believed her not approved rating from the QCBA was “a miscarriage of justice” and called it a “a predetermined political decision in furtherance of the Queens political machine’s influence.”
Queens Civil Court candidates Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar, Glenda Hernandez and Amish Doshi were all approved by the NYCBA. Attorneys Nasser-Cuellar and Doshi are both supported in their race for Civil Court, where there are currently two vacancies, by the Queens County Democratic Party.
Hernandez, who works as a court attorney but previously worked as a supervising attorney at the Urban Justice Center and as a private attorney representing tenants in Housing Court cases, is supported in the race by Hiram Monserrate, the former lawmaker who was booted from the State Senate after being convicted of misdemeanor assault charges in 2010 and who later served time in federal prison related to corruption charges stemming from his time in the City Council.
Julie Milner, who is also running for the Civil Court and is backed by Monserrate, was given the NYCBA’s not approved rating – Milner did not participate in the NYCBA or QCBA judicial candidate review but the NYCBA gives “not approved” ratings to those candidates who do not participate.
In May, the Eagle reported that Milner’s social media account appeared to show that she spread conspiracy theories on a number of occasions and shared opinions on political topics despite judicial ethics rules that prohibit similar conduct. A deep dive into her feed on X unveiled that Milner, who is running as a Democrat, had previously latched on to issues championed by the far-right. She had tweeted seemingly in support of bans on LGBTQ+ books – which she called “filthy, pornographic smut” – in school libraries and had questioned the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.
On at least two occasions, Milner herself appeared to call for the execution of President Joe Biden. Those tweets have since been deleted.
This election cycle, Milner’s campaign also sent $350 of donor funds to Win Red, a payment technology company that allows donors to contribute to Republican campaigns and committees throughout the country, according to the state’s campaign finance board.
How the NYCBA’s ratings work
In order to receive the NYCBA’s approved rating, candidates have to have “affirmatively demonstrated qualifications necessary for the performance of the duties of the position for which they are being considered,” according to the bar association. Candidates receive the not approved rating if they don’t meet that standard or if they don’t participate in the NYCBA’s review.
Though the NYCBA does not share the detailed results of their review of judicial candidates and does not answer any questions about them, they do explain their process.
The NYCBA’s review is conducted by their Judiciary Committee, which is composed of 50 members of the bar association and features three members from each of the county bar associations, including the Queens County Bar Association.
The committee is charged with determining whether candidates hold “the necessary qualifications to become a judge, such as integrity, impartiality, intellectual ability, knowledge of the law, industriousness, and judicial demeanor and temperament.”
Candidates are required to fill out the committee’s judicial questionnaire, which asks questions related to the candidate’s legal experience, education and employment history.
If the candidate is a practicing attorney and not yet a judge, they are asked to provide statements about the types of trials they have handled over the past decade and provide contact information for lawyers, judges and courtroom opponents who may speak to the candidate’s performance in court.
Candidates who are already judges – like both Surrogate’s Court candidates in Queens – are asked to list their last 10 trials and include contact information for the attorneys involved, and a list of lawyers who appear before them frequently, the NYCBA said.
The questionnaires are then reviewed by a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee’s members, who also conduct interviews with references, review the candidates’ written work and interview the candidate. The subcommittee then creates a report and turns it over the full committee, which, in turn, meets with the candidate and explores issues the subcommittee has found during its investigation.
The full committee then votes on rating the candidates either approved or not approved.
Not approved candidates can appeal their rating so long as they received approval ratings from at least 25 percent of the original vote.
Judicial ratings in Manhattan and Brooklyn
Though neither the Bronx nor Staten Island have competitive primary races for the bench this year, there is one race each in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
In New York County, both Alice Tam Tien and Harold Bahr were approved in their bids for the Civil Court.
In Brooklyn, both Janice Robinson and Kenneth Gayle were rated not approved in their bids for the Civil Court. There are no other Democratic candidates running for the seat.
Early voting in primary races throughout the city are currently underway and runs through Sunday, June 23. Election day is Tuesday, June 25.
