New York Judges Go To Court For A Raise - But Will It Work?

Judith Kaye, the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, will file suit today arguing that the state legislature's failure hike judicial pay violates state law.  The argument, as best as I can understand it, is either that the effective drop in salary over the past decade - when judges last received a bump - constitutes a threat to an independent judiciary or that, by tying judicial raises to legislator raises, the legislature has breached the mandated separation of powers.  A fuller discussion of the issue is here.

I don't know New York law, but my instinct is that this is aloser from a legal point of view.  Judges in New York still receive six figure salaries, from top to bottom on the food chain, and while that may be inadequate, it's hardly a starvation wage.  And combined with the status, and power, associated with these positions, its hard to argue that it will result in an unqualified and ineffective judiciary.  It also seems hard to believe that there is some substantive right to judicial raises that the legislature is undermining.

I take it, however, that this is a publicity maneuver - strategic litigation where the goal is a legislative solution.  The problem is that judges are relatively unsympathetic characters.  First off, anyone making $100K or more isn't going to be particularly appealing to the great majority of the public that earns far less.  In any case, people perceive being a judge as an honor; anyone who hates the salary can feel free to choose  more lucrative options.  Perhaps, though, the target audience isn't the general public but the legal establishment.  Maybe the goal here is to highlight an issue that many lawyers don't know about, and emphasize that the quality of their litigation is under threat.  Kaye may really be seeking to harness the powers of powerful New York attorneys to lobby for a raise. 

After watching what happened in Pennsylvania, however, Kaye (and the state legislators) best be careful.  If the public feels that judges are overreaching, voters may punish the legislators who facilitated raises.  I believe that there are excellent reasons to pay judges well - not least of which that good salaries may help build a more talented judiciary, to some extent - but I'll be watching closely to see if this litigation stunt pays dividends for anyone. 

Comments

[David S. Cohen]

I assume this is a state law issue so it's in state court, not federal court. But, who hears it since state judges are the plaintiffs?