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48 Syracuse L. Rev. 1493 (1998)
Choosing Judges for a State's Highest Court

handle is hein.journals/syrlr48 and id is 1517 raw text is: CHOOSING JUDGES FOR A STATE'S HIGHEST COURT George Bundy Smitht In November 1977 the voters of New York State changed the method of selection of judges for the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.' Since the Constitution of 1846 and the crea- tion of the Court of Appeals in 1847, the judges of that court had been elected. The election of judges had been consistent with the view, prevalent since the period of Jacksonian Democracy in the nineteenth century, that public officials, including judges, should be elected by the people.2 It was also consistent with the view that those who had been appointed to the bench favored the landed gentry, as opposed to tenant farmers and others,3 and that a new method of selection of judges should be tried. Prior to the Convention of 1846, New York had an appointive system for the selection of judges.4 The Constitution of 1777 provided for a Council on Appointment consisting of the Governor and four Senators chosen by the Assembly.5 The Constitution of 1821 abolished the Council on Appointment and provided for the appointment by the Governor with the consent of the Senate of all judges with the excep- tion of Justices of the Peace.6 From the Constitution of 1846 until the 1977 change, election by the voters of the state was the method of se- lecting judges to the Court of Appeals. The immediate causes of the effort to change the manner of se- lecting judges of the Court of Appeals were the elections of 1972 and 1973. In 1972 three Associate Judges were elected to the Court and, in t Associate Judge, New York Court of Appeals 1. N.Y. CONST. art. VI, § 2. 2. Report of the Joint Legislative Committee on Court Reorganization, at 8 (1973). 3. Id. 4. N.Y. CONST. of 1777, art. XXIII (1777). 5. Id. 6. N.Y. CONST. of 1821, art. IV § 7 (1821), repealed by N.Y. CONST. of 1848, art. 6, § 2(1848). 1493

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