Cuomo signs law to bring additional Supreme Court justice to Queens

Queens will get one additional Supreme Court justice following the passage of a new law.  Eagle file photo by Andy Katz

By Jacob Kaye

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law Tuesday that will bring an additional Supreme Court justice to Queens.

The new law, which passed the State Senate at the end of the legislative body’s session earlier last month, will increase the number of Supreme Court justices in the majority of judicial districts throughout the state.

The law aims to bring the number of a judicial districts’ justices in line with each districts’ population. 

The New York Constitution authorizes one Supreme Court justices for each 50,000 residents in a judicial district. The number of new justices added under the law would bring each judicial district in line with the constitutional formula. 

The bill follows the mass reduction of judges in 2020, which began when the Office of Court Administration denied the recertification of 46 of 49 justices over the age of 70 who applied. 

Citing budget concerns at the time of the layoffs, the OCA gave the judges another opportunity to apply for recertification in April of this year. Of the 33 who applied, 19 returned to the bench last month. 

“I am glad the legislature understood that by denying certification of Supreme Court justices, they were reducing our numbers,” said Queens Supreme Court Justice Carmen Velasquez, who also serves as the president of the Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York. “The passage of this bill is a clear demonstration that the elective judicial branch is the preferred method.

Queens, which was allotted 41 justices before the bill was signed into law, isn’t the only borough in the city getting a boost in Supreme Court justices. 

Brooklyn, which is covered by the 2nd Judicial District, will tack on one additional judge, bringing it to 50 justices. The 12th Judicial District, which covers the Bronx, will also get an additional judge, bringing its total to 28. Staten Island, the 13th Judicial District, will get two additional justices, bringing its total up to seven. 

Manhattan is one of two judicial districts in the state that won’t see an increase in its number of Supreme Court justices – the other is the 4th Judicial District, which covers Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Saratoga, Schenectady, St. Lawrence, Warren and Washington Counties.

For some, including one of the bill’s co-sponsors Sen. Leroy Comrie, the additional judge in Queens is celebrated, but also somewhat of a let down. 

“We’re going to get one additional one in Queens, unfortunately, I was hoping for more, but they claimed that because of the census numbers...we're only getting one more,” Comrie told the Eagle last month. “We need experienced judges, especially in a system where it could take six months to eight months to get a hearing. We need as many judges as we can get right now.”

By adding justices across the state, clearing the backlog of cases across courts that has built up over the course of the pandemic may become easier, the senator said. 

“It's important that we try to clean up this backlog,” Comrie said. “I think the next fight is to expand the amount of judges all together. Hopefully we can address that next year.”

Another bill, which also passed the legislature at the end of last month’s session, would make it so Supreme Court justices applying for recertification would automatically be approved as far as they meet the qualifications for the job and that there is a need for them. 

The bill to make recertification more of a certainty is awaiting the governor’s signature.