Mark Hanna’s Guide to the 2024 Judicial Elections in Bay Ridge

As a preliminary matter, it’s worth knowing how the Court system is structured.

The New York State Court System in a nutshell

There are three main kinds of Courts. Federal, State and Local. 

Federal Court Judges are not subject to elected terms, they are all appointed. Elect Democratic Presidents and Senators to have an effect on who becomes a Judge on the Federal level. I can elaborate on the hierarchy of Federal Courts if necessary, but for now –

Starting from the most local level – there exists a Court system that is variously referred to as a County Court (if you’re in Counties north of Bronx), a District Court (because Nassau and Suffolk like to be different and make people confused) and New York City Civil Court (the 5 NYC Counties). 

The Civil Court Judges

On the ballot locally, we’re dealing with 2 ballot entries on this local level. The position is the same – Judge of the Civil Court. The distinction between the two ballot entries is purely the area that the candidate is running in. There are “county wide” civil court judge seats and there are “municipal district” civil court seats. Here’s a map of the 5^th Municipal District: https://vote.nyc/sites/default/files/pdf/maps/mcd/2024/mcbk05.pdf)

 People run for vacancies on the bench and so, if someone wants to run to be a Judge, they can do it locally in their municipal district, or they can choose to run for a vacant County wide seat (which may be harder and more expensive). It’s irrelevant once they are elected though. 

These are 10 year terms that they are being elected to.

Here’s where it gets weird. We are electing Judges nominally for Civil Court – a City level Court. However, once elected, they may actually sit in one of three Courts: Civil Court and Criminal Court which are City Courts or Family Court which is actually a State Court. 

Technically, the Judges of the Criminal and Family Court are appointed Judges. They get those positions through the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. BUT, because nothing is ever straightforward, the Office of Court Administration in the City of New York has authority to rearrange the Judiciary and send elected Civil Court Judges to Criminal and Family Court too. 

So, the two Civil Court Judge positions we’re voting on are for Judges to sit in one of those three Courts. 

Firstly, is the Civil Court. It takes in three kinds of cases: general civil lawsuits for cases where parties are seeking less than $50,000 in monetary relief; small claims for cases where the amount of monetary relief is less than $10,000; and housing court, where the issues between landlords and tenants are adjudicated. 

The Criminal Court is, I believe, familiar to us all. It’s where a person accused of a crime will go to have their case tried. There are a handful of “Problem-Solving Courts” such as the Red Hook Community Justice Center as well, which are part of the Criminal Court system, but have better outcomes for everyone involved. By not being needlessly punitive, rather by using alternatives to incarceration, they are better able to handle youth and low-level criminal offenses. They are also research institutions in their own regard and I am always happy to strongly urge people to look into it because holy hell a better world is possible: https://www.innovatingjustice.org/programs/red-hook-community-justice-center  

The Family Court handles the variety of cases with issues involving children, families and (in conjunction with the Criminal Court) domestic violence. 

Although it’s considered the lower of the Courts in the grand hierarchy of the Court system, the position of Judge of the Civil Court for us, within NYC, is a very critical position and these elected Judges may have to preside over any number of disparate kinds of cases depending on their eventual assignment. 

The State Court Position

Firstly, because it’s not necessarily intuitive, the Supreme Court of the State of New York is the lowest state Court, unlike basically every other state and the Federal courts. Additionally, the Judges are called “Justices” rather than “Judges”.  There’s probably interesting history about these naming conventions but I don’t know it. 

These candidates are placed on the ballot through a Judicial nominating process carried out by the Democratic party. The Republican party and Conservative party also sometimes put their own people on the ballot, but it’s rare – mostly they just nominate the same people since the position is, in theory, non-partisan. This process alone is worthy of an article of its own, but the important takeaway is that this is why it says “elect 7” and there are only 7 choices. Since the Democratic Party controls the ballot access, they simply are not going to pit candidates against each other on the ballot – they are pitted against each other before they even get the nomination. It’s like a closed primary, but the only voters are the elected Kings County district leaders. :/

The candidates here are (almost) always already Judges of the Civil Court who are seeking to work in the Supreme Court. 

Justice of the Supreme Court grants them a title change and a new 14 year term. One candidate this year is a re-election candidate, Justice Jeffrey Sunshine (who I wholeheartedly endorse as one of the greatest matrimonial justices who has ever sat on the bench, for whatever that’s worth)

These Justices are going to preside over cases involving monetary relief above $50,000, as well as Divorces, lawsuits against government bodies, and other cases of “equitable relief” (contract enforcement, declaratory judgments, things of that nature).