239
Judith S. Kaye: A Chief Judge for
Families and Children
ANDREW SCHEPARD*
Introduction
Judith S. Kaye served as the rst female associate judge of the New
York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) from 1983–1993, and
as the court’s rst female chief judge from 1993 until her mandatory
retirement in 2008 at the age of 70.1 As chief judge, she played a dual role:
presiding over the Court of Appeals and serving as the administrative head
of the sprawling New York State Unied Court System, which, at the time
of her death in 2016, had a budget of $2.5 billion and 16,000 employees.2
Chief Judge Kaye’s extraordinarily eventful judicial tenure confronted:
• September 11th: It fell to Chief Judge Kaye to rally the court
system after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, when three court ofcers lost their lives
1. Sam Roberts, Judith S. Kaye, First Woman to Serve as New York’s Chief Judge, Dies
at 77, n.y. times (Jan. 7, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/nyregion/judith-s-kaye-
rst-woman-to-serve-as-new-yorks-chief-judge-dies-at-77.html.
2. Id.
* Andrew Schepard is the Sidney and Walter Siben Distinguished Professor of Family Law
and Director of the Center for Children, Families and the Law, at the Maurice A. Deane School of
Law at Hofstra University. He is Editor Emeritus of the Family Court Review. He was appointed
to the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children (described later
in this article) by Chief Judge Kaye, and he worked with her on a number of family-law-related
projects. He gives a special thank you to his research assistants, Kaitlyn McCracken, Evelyn
Gitsin, and Laura Fallick, Hofstra Law School Class of 2022, for their invaluable help.
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 3, 2021–2022. © 2022 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
240 Family Law Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 3, 2021–2022
during rescue efforts and major court buildings were rendered
unusable due to dust and air-quality problems.3
• Jury Reform: Chief Judge Kaye dramatically improved the
treatment of jurors. She eliminated virtually all automatic
exemptions from the jury pool, thus diversifying and expanding
it. Even lawyers became eligible to serve on juries. Chief Judge
Kaye also eliminated the automatic sequestration of jurors, thus
easing the emotional and economic strain of jury service.4
• The Need for a Commercial Division: Chief Judge Kaye created
a Commercial Division in the New York State Supreme Court (the
misleadingly named trial court of general jurisdiction) to ensure
that New York courts would continue to be a leading center for
resolving business disputes.5
• The Death Penalty: Chief Judge Kaye repeatedly voted to strike
down New York’s death penalty laws.6 As a result, no one was
executed in New York State during her tenure on the Court of
Appeals.
This tribute, however, focuses on Chief Judge Kaye’s special passion—
the welfare of families and children involved with the legal system. The
question of how to improve the relationship between the legal system,
families, and children was always at the center of Chief Judge Kaye’s
judicial universe. Her accomplishments in this area make her a candidate
for the most consequential family law judge in American history. More
specically:
• As a judge of the highest court of an inuential state, Chief Judge
Kaye authored seminal opinions (including dissents that eventually
found their way into the judicial or legislative mainstream) on
3. See thomas a. BiRkland, emeRgency Planning and the JUdiciaRy: lessons FRom
sePtemBeR 11, at 1 (Ctr. for Ct. Innovation 2004), https://www.courtinnovation.org/sites/
default/les/emergencyplanning.pdf.
4. Hon. Jonathan Lippman, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye: A Legacy of Visionary Leadership,
10 gov’t, laW & Pol’y J., Winter 2008, at 4, 6; see also Somini Sengupta, New Law Releases
Juries in New York from Sequestering, n.y. times, May 31, 2001.
5. Commercial Division—N.Y. Supreme Court, History, n.y. state UniFied ct. sys., http://
ww2.nycourts.gov/courts/comdiv/history.shtml (describing creation of Commercial Courts
Task Force by Chief Judge Kaye in 1995 and her establishing commercial divisions in judicial
districts statewide that same year).
6. Roberts, supra note 1. See generally Deborah L. Hiller, Death Becomes the State: The
Death Penalty in New York State Past, Present and Future, 28 Pace l. Rev. 589 (2008); see also
People v. Smith, 468 N.E.2d 879 (N.Y. 1984).
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 3, 2021–2022. © 2022 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
