Fate of 3 Judges Vying to be NY Supreme Court Justice Will be Decided This Week
A low key Democratic judicial conference on Aug. 8 will pick the party’s nominee to be the newest NYS Supreme Court Justice serving Manhattan County. Since the Dem candidate typically runs unopposed in the general election, the outcome of the secret ballot at the conference virtually guarantees the winner’s election come November.
Only One Will Rise: The fate of three civil court judges vying to become next NY County Supreme Court judge will finallly be decided when local Dems pow wow at their Judicial Convention to be held Aug. 8. Although the election is technically Nov. 2024 the real race will almost certainly be decided with little fanfare inside an auditorium inside the School of Ethical Culture on West. 64th and Central Park West since the Dem candidate typically runs unopposed in the general election.
The down-to-the-wire candidates for nomination are Judges Suzanne Adams, Judy Kim, and Gerald Lebovits. There is only one open seat. The two who don’t make it will be in line for the next go round (probably next year) and will join Judges Jim Clynes, Shahabudden Ally, Illana Marcus among others who may subsequently come out of the panel.
[Full disclosure: this year I’m an alternate delegate at the convention.]
In recent months, decisions in cases by Judges Suzanne Adams and Gerald Lebovits have received significant media attention. Here goes: The NY Post headlined Judge Adams’s decision in the case against “[c]riminally convicted urologist Darius Paduch” who is “accused of performing unnecessary surgical procedures without anesthesia so he could inflict pain on patients, and later got the alleged victims hooked on opioids to further control them.” Judge Adams ruled that the “attempt to dismiss and seal a massive sex abuse class action lawsuit against criminally convicted former urologist Darius Paduch –with nearly 300 male plaintiffs–has failed,” and “the class action against the doctor and the medical institutions which employed him should move forward and demanded that Paduch finally produce a reply to the complaint later this summer.
The Right to Shelter case–also known as the Migrant case–about whether and to what extent New York City and New York State have an obligation to document, feed, clothe, medically support, find employment for, help prepare asylum applications for, and shelter New York’s more than two hundred thousand asylum seekers was before Judge Lebovits. And Politico, in March 2024, wrote that “the Adams administration agreed to back down from its push to suspend the policy, which dates back to 1981,” in an agreement reached following “months of mediation under New York Supreme Court judge Gerald Lebovits that started in October [2023].” After five months of intense negotiation with Justice Lebovits, the Legal Aid Society, the Coalition for the Homeless, New York City, and New York State settled in an historic stipulation. Since that time, no one has sought to enforce their stipulation.
There’s been no recent media coverage of Judge Judy Kim cases. The court calendar of Judge Judy (if I may) Kim covers civil matters and trials (torts, contracts, civil rights claims under State Constitution and the Civil Rights Act).
Speaking (again) about Papaya–Feels like old-home week having the hot dog king back on E. 86th St. Hopefully the closed cinema next door gets to live another day as well. Wouldn’t it be great to leave that venue, stop next door for a frank, some sauerkraut and onions, along with some juicy papaya? Ah, yes, 86th Street lives again.