“Merit” Selection System Under Fire in New York
July 18, 2012
The New York Daily News has an editorial on the difficulty the state’s “merit” selection panel is having getting qualified candidates to apply for openings on the bench. The reason? Prospective judges are wising up to the fact that “merit” selection is a rigged, insider’s game rife with cronyism. According to the Daily News, the “cumulative effect” of recent appointments “has been to prompt many lawyers who are superbly qualified but poorly connected to reasonably ask: Why bother?”
The editorial notes that when retiring Judge Judith Kaye was appointed to the court, the “merit” commission interviewed more than 40 applicants for the spot. When she stepped down, however, just 12 candidates even bothered to apply. Recently, the “merit” commission had to extend its filing deadline for an opening on the New York Court of Appeals – a “worrisome” sign that “suggests lawyers and judges are not stampeding to apply for a post on a court with a long reputation as one of America’s premier state benches.”
