Senate confirms Judge Troutman to Court of Appeals
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Judge Shirley Troutman will be taking her place on the State Court of Appeals bench after being confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday. Photo via OCA
By Rachel Vick
Judge Shirley Troutman was confirmed by the State Senate to the Court of Appeals bench Wednesday.
Troutman, 62, will become the second Black woman ever to serve on the state’s highest court. She is celebrated by lawmakers and legal leaders for her commitment to justice.
“During her confirmation hearings, Justice Troutman showed New Yorkers why she is well-suited to join our state's highest court,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul. “Her extraordinary qualifications, her superlative legal mind, her fair-minded judicial philosophy, and her commitment to equity and justice for all New Yorkers.”
Troutman most recently served as an associate justice in the Appellate Division, Fourth Department and has been an elected judge for nearly 30 years after first being elected in 1994 to serve in Buffalo City Court.
Though opponents to the appointment have no questions about the Judge’s capability or the value of representation, their criticism of the decision is rooted in the lack of professional diversity on the high court bench — a majority of the judges Troutman is joining come from a prosecutorial background.
“Governor Hochul missed her opportunity to begin improving the Court of Appeals, instead doubling down on former Governor Cuomo’s approach to the Court,” said Judicial Accountability Project Director at Center for Community Alternatives Peter Martin, expressing concern that
the current makeup “will continue to favor prosecutorial and corporate power and sustain New York’s mass incarceration crisis.”
“Judge Troutman is a well-regarded jurist, and importantly, she is the second Black woman to ever serve on the state’s highest court,” Martin added. “However, her background as a prosecutor intensifies an existing imbalance at a moment when New York desperately needs high-court judges with experience representing our most vulnerable communities.”
Martin went on to criticize the “senators who indicated that they believed New York deserved a new kind of Court failed to back their words up with actions.”
Among the legislators who pushed for professional diversity was State Sen. Michael GIanaris, who wrote a letter to the Commission on Judicial Nominations urging them to select nominees like public defenders with a background in working alongside the general public.
He was later joined by legislators in writing a letter to Hochul issuing their support for public defender candidates Timothy Murphy and Corey Stoughton, outlining the risks that could come with gaps in the judiciary.
“It means you won't be getting decisions that are tilted too much in one direction of the ideological spectrum,” Gianaris told the Eagle in October. “I thought it was important to advocate directly to the commission to give the governor…someone who represents that kind of variety of experience.”
Gianaris did not respond to request for comment for this story.
Senate Judiciary Committee member Alessandra Biaggi, who represents part of the Bronx and Westchester, reiterated her confidence in the decision to confirm Troutman in a statement highlighting the judge’s “holistic understanding of the law and the ways in which our criminal justice system has failed New Yorkers.”
“With every vacancy we have a responsibility to confirm judges who reflect our state’s diversity, understand the lived experiences of working class New Yorkers, and prioritize the rights of all New Yorkers within the criminal justice system,” Biaggi said.
