Жудит Кей: Нью-Йорк штатының бас судьясының өмірі мен қызметі

American judge

Judith Ann Kaye ( Smith; August 4, 1938 – January 7, 2016) was an American lawyer, jurist and the longtime Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, serving in that position from March 23, 1993, until December 31, 2008. She was the first woman to serve as chief judge, the highest judicial office in New York State, and the longest serving chief judge in New York history.

Kaye was born as Judith Ann Smith in Monticello, New York on August 4, 1938. Her parents, Benjamin and Lena (née Cohen) Smith, were Jewish immigrants from Poland who lived on a farm in Sullivan County, New York, and operated a women's apparel store. She skipped two grades, graduating from Monticello High School (New York) aged fifteen. Kaye was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1963. In November 1992, Chief Judge Sol Wachtler resigned after being arrested on charges that he extorted money from a former lover. Cuomo nominated Kaye to fill the chief judge vacancy on February 22, 1993. She was confirmed unanimously by the senate on March 17, and then sworn in on March 23, 1993. With her term set to expire, Governor Eliot Spitzer renominated Kaye as chief judge on February 7, 2007. She was confirmed by the senate on March 6, and sworn in on March 19, 2007. The chief judge of New York has both an administrative role (overseeing the entire state court system, which in 2016 had about 16,000 employees In 2008, as Kaye approached mandatory retirement age, The New York Times editorial board praised her, writing: "In her 15 years as chief, Judith Kaye has excelled at both, earning national praise for her jurisprudence and as a court reformer." Kaye also took steps to make jury service more efficient and convenient. Kaye helped establish the Center for Court Innovation, a non profit think tank that although independent of the court system, serves as the judiciary's research and development arm.

Kaye retired on December 31, 2008, after reaching the age of 70, the state's mandatory retirement age for judges. Kaye had "made occasional negative references to the mandatory retirement requirement, once saying experienced jurists were being forced from the bench to the 'great detriment' of the courts." Kaye gave her farewell speech on November 12, 2008, and formally retired on the last day of that year. She was the longest serving chief judge in New York history. On March 11, 2010, then New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo appointed Kaye as an independent counsel to investigate Governor David Paterson's alleged violation of ethics laws, due to Cuomo's conflict of interest. In that role, she was granted the authority to investigate various charges against the governor, and to bring criminal charges. Her final determination pertaining to her investigation of Paterson was to not refer charges to the prosecutor's office against the sitting governor. Governor Paterson appointed Kaye to the twelve member Commission on Judicial Nomination for a four year term beginning March 31, 2009. Kaye was elected as the commission's chair on May 21, 2009, and she continued in that role until her death.

Kaye died on January 7, 2016, at her home in Manhattan, from lung cancer. She had been diagnosed with the disease about five years before her death. She was 77 years old.

Kaye married Stephen Rackow Kaye, a commercial litigator who had been her colleague at Sullivan & Cromwell and later a partner at the law firm of Proskauer Rose, on February 11, 1964. He died in 2006. They had three children: Luisa (Hagemeier), Jonathan and Gordon. President Jimmy Carter appointed Kaye to the U. S. Nominating Commission for Judges of the Second Circuit. Kaye received the Barnard Medal of Distinction from Barnard College, the college's highest honor, in 1987. Kaye was a longtime member of Congregation Shearith Israel, a Sephardic synagogue in New York. Benjamin Cardozo, one of Kaye's predecessors as chief judge of the Court of Appeals of New York, was a congregant at the same synagogue.