A Strategy for Judicial Performance Evaluation in New York

Abstract

New York has experienced a loud and tumultuous decade with respect to the selection of its state and local judges, including a First Amendment challenge to the partisan nomination of candidates for the state Supreme Court and several studies indicating that the voting public knows very little about judicial candidates on the ballot. These events underscore the need for decision-makers, the public and the judiciary itself to have complete, reliable, and relevant information about judges and judicial candidates. In this essay, we consider what lessons judicial performance evaluation (JPE) programs offer for judicial screening and judicial selection in New York, and explain how both citizens and judges would benefit from an official, comprehensive JPE program.

Keywords: Judicial performance evaluation, JPE, judicial selection, judicial elections, New York, judicial screening