New York State Bar Association Favors Removing Limit on the Number of State Supreme Court Justices
6.8.2024
The New York State Bar Association voted Saturday to urge the state Legislature to approve a Constitutional Amendment that would allow voters to decide if a limit on the number of state Supreme Court justices should be removed.
The New York State Legislature approved the Constitutional Amendment on Thursday but for it to go on the ballot, it must also be approved by the next Legislature, which will take office in January of 2025. Gov. Kathy Hochul does not play a role in getting a Constitutional Amendment onto the ballot.
New York’s Constitution caps the number of state judges that can be elected to one for every 50,000 residents. The New York State Bar Association has long argued that the cap places a burden on the courts, litigants and the bar, particularly in the busy First and Second departments, which include New York City, Long Island and five counties in the Hudson Valley. A January 2017 state bar association report calling for a Constitutional Convention said that the state should consider lifting the cap.
“The constitutionally-prescribed limit is unworkable,” said Domenick Napoletano, president of the New York State Bar Association. “It has forced the state’s court system to keep Acting Supreme Court Justices in the state’s busiest courts on an almost permanent basis, depleting the resources of the courts to which they were elected. New Yorkers deserve an adequate number of judges.”
The New York State Bar Association’s House of Delegates on Saturday endorsed a September 2023 report by the New York City Bar Association calling for the cap’s removal. The report also recommends evaluating if there are enough judges in the rest of the state’s courts including Family Court.
The report has already received the support of the state bar association’s Commercial & Federal Litigation Section, Family Law Section, Young Lawyers Section, LGBTQ+ Law Section and the Committee on the New York State Constitution.
