Judicial Appointments and the Glass Ceiling
Employment discrimination has taken over the front page in New York State. Rarely, if ever, are candidates under consideration for a job published, let alone made known. However, the Commission on Judicial Nominations did just that after New York Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye stepped down. Here, seven potential replacements have been named, all of them men.
In an article that appeared in today’s New York Law Journal, Joel Stashenko reports that both New York Governor David A. Patterson and New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo have spoken out against the lack of diversity amongst the candidates to replace Kaye. While no one is calling the process discriminatory, Governor Patterson did say he was “outraged.”
Clearly any of the seven men under consideration would be fine additions to the Court, however, this situation shows that the “glass ceiling” is very real, even where the government is involved.
