State ordered to change way judges chosen(adapted from the Times Herald Record, January 30th, 2006) New York - A federal judge ruled Friday that the state's system for selecting trial judges gives too much power to political bosses, and ordered that it be replaced. Ruling in a case brought by a watchdog group and watched closely by political and court observers in the mid-Hudson and the Catskills, Judge John Gleeson said picking judiciary candidates at major party political conventions deprives voters of a say in who's on the final ballot. The ruling resonates particularly loudly in Orange County, which has lost state Supreme Court seats in each of the last three elections because of political intrigue that's a byproduct of the system. Orange County is part of the 9th Judicial District, which means its candidates are affected by the machinations of political bosses in Westchester and Rockland counties, which are also part of the district. Benjamin Ostrer, a Chester lawyer who testified as a witness for the watchdog group, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said, "I think this was an appropriate decision, as the judicial nominating convention system does deprive the rank-and-file voter of any say as to who sits on some of the most important matters that confront us as citizens." Gleeson issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the state's Board of Election from enforcing the existing system, and instructed New York to hold traditional primary elections to pick Supreme Court candidates until the Legislature enacts a replacement scheme. The ruling only applies to elections regarding the Supreme Court, which in New York is a lower court that conducts trials. Other elected judges in the state are nominated in direct primaries, rather than in conventions. Gleeson wrote that the Brennan Center had demonstrated convincingly that the current system for Supreme Court openings is an "undemocratic selection procedure." A spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose office defended the constitutionality of the state's system in court, said she could not comment on the ruling, issued late in the day. Times Herald-Record reporter Oliver Mackson contributed to this article.
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