No American should have to wait for justice. The right to a speedy trial is not only a pillar of the constitution, but an issue of basic fairness. Yet, in New York we have a backlog of more than a million cases. More than a million New Yorkers are, every moment, having their lives upended by our failure to administer justice in a swift and timely manner. There are many reasons for this, but the most basic and consequential reason is that we simply do not have enough judges. While simply hiring and seating more judges sounds like an easy fix, doing it in practice means overturning a Constitutional provision from 1846.
New Yorkers of all stripes suffer the consequences of delays. Most glaringly, those who are ineligible for bail wait for years in jail to see their day in court. And while most observers understandably focus on delays in criminal proceedings, delays are even more pronounced in civil matters — with terrible consequences for all kinds of people just looking to have their day in court. Delays in divorce proceedings wreak havoc on families. The long wait for trials delays the recovery of damages needed by plaintiffs who suffer injuries. The glacial resolution of business disputes hurts New York’s economy by deterring economic activity here. No matter how a New Yorker interacts with the court system, they are often frustrated by gridlock along a long and winding road to obtaining a day in court. The status quo is untenable, and we must act because justice delayed is justice denied.
The bad news is that in the Bronx, the Capital District, and Manhattan, the New York Legislature is powerless to add more seats to the State Supreme Court — the trial-level court which initially hears many civil and criminal matters. An archaic clause in the New York Constitution arbitrarily caps the number of State Supreme Court judgeships at one justice per 50,000 people residing in each district. The “cap” was first created in 1846 and has been untouched since the early 1960s, when there were a third of the cases that exist today.
Because of the constitutional cap, and the fact that many State Supreme Court districts are already at or near their capped number of justices, the backlog will only increase over time. It will not matter how many cases each justice is handling — alarmingly, a Manhattan Supreme Court justice can walk into their chambers every day with up to 2,500 cases on their docket and 400 motions awaiting their decision — or how long it is taking for cases to go to trial.
In the absence of an adequate number of justices, court administrators have resorted to stopgap measures, such as appointing acting judges from other courts to hear disputes. Instead of relying on band-aids, we must address the root problem and eliminate the archaic, unconscionable cap once and for all.
A broad coalition of groups representing almost every category of New Yorker interacting with the court system – good government groups, business groups, the City Bar Association, prosecutors, and defenders alike – has come together to advocate for amending the New York State Constitution to remove the arbitrary cap on state supreme court judges. Even Chief Judge Rowan Wilson has come out in favor of reform. The Senate and Assembly passed necessary legislation introduced by Senator Hoylman-Sigal—Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee—and Assemblymember Bores this year, but the legislation must pass again next year and then approved by voters in a statewide referendum.
It is impossible to calculate how many New Yorkers have already suffered due to judicial backlogs. But while there is nothing we can do to remedy the harms caused by the cap to date, we owe it to all New Yorkers seeking justice in our court system to remove this unconscionable cap on justice in New York, and move one step closer to justice for all
