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Chief Judge Recalls Jury System Modernization
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Being a Court of Appeals Judge A Bit of ‘Lawyer Heaven’, says Kaye
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The pending retirement of Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye from the New York State Court of Appeals has prompted her to speak more frequently on the issues that have shaped her tenure, and in the cover article of the October New York State Bar Journal, she reflects on the sea changes in the state’s jury system over the past 13 years.
In the article, Kaye also reveals that her appointment to the Court of Appeals as its Chief Judge and the “awesome responsibility” of her judicial role provided her with a piece of “Lawyer Heaven. That is as true today as it was on September 12, 1983, over 23 years ago, when I first took my seat on the Court of Appeals.”
Reforming the state’s jury system was one of Kaye’s first initiatives upon being named chief judge 13 years ago, she said in the article. Jury service “is the courts’ direct link, often our only link, with the millions of citizens called to serve as jurors—more than 650,000 a year in New York State alone.”
In the article, Kaye traces the history of juries—from the first juries created by colonial settlers, to the inclusion of Article III in the United States Constitution, to the Seventh Amendment to the Bill of Rights, to the changes engendered by the Civil Rights movements of modern times. Much of the article details the changes made in New York according to the recommendations of the members of The Jury Project. Consisting of lawyers, judges, and members of the public, The Jury Project was commissioned by Kaye in 1993 to create “a blueprint for comprehensive reform, which we have been implementing ever since.”
In the article, Kaye challenges her colleagues and members of the Bar to help “build a citizenry that is better informed” about the branches of government, especially the courts. The newly established Center for the Courts and the Community, a non-profit public-private partnership, another brainchild of Kaye’s, will focus on strengthening educational opportunities for children and adults. It also will establish programs aimed at assisting the media in its reporting on the courts, according to the article.
The article in the Bar Journal was adapted from Judge Kaye’s 2006 Burton Lecture, which she presented at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy of the State University of New York at Albany.
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