Michael Garcia (New York)
2016 - Present
2030
9
Michael Garcia is a judge of the New York Court of Appeals. He assumed office on February 8, 2016. His current term ends on February 7, 2030.
Garcia first became a member of the State of New York Court of Appeals through gubernatorial appointment. He was nominated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and confirmed by the state Senate in February 2016.[1] To read more about judicial selection in New York, click here.
Garcia was a United States attorney in Manhattan from 2005 to 2008. His office investigated a prostitution ring that led to the 2008 resignation of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D).[1]
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Garcia received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Garcia received a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1983, a master's degree from the College of William & Mary in 1984, and a law degree from Albany Law School in 1989. Prior to his appointment to the State of New York Court of Appeals he worked as an attorney in private practice from 2008 to 2016. From 2005 to 2008, he was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and from 2003 to 2005 he was an Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the United States Department of Homeland Security.[4]
Elections
2014
- See also: New York attorney general election, 2014
Garcia considered running for election to the position of New York Attorney General in 2014.[5] In September 2013 it was reported he would not seek the position due to professional and personal reasons.[6]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[7]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Michael
Garcia
New York
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Held political office as a Republican
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
Partisan Profile
Details:
Garcia donated $5,000 to Republican candidates. From 2003 to 2005, he was Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the United States Department of Homeland Security in the George Bush (R) administration. Prior to 2020 he was a registered Republican. He was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
State supreme court judicial selection in New York
- See also: Judicial selection in New York
The seven judges of the New York Court of Appeals are selected through the assisted appointment method. The governor appoints each new judge from a list of qualified nominees submitted by a judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by the New York State Senate.[9][10]
Judges serve 14-year terms. To remain on the court, a judge must be renominated by the governor and reconfirmed by the Senate. Judges must retire at the end of the year in which they turn 70 years old; however, retired judges may serve until the end of the year in which they turn 76 years old if they are certified as competent every two years.[9][10]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a person must be a resident of New York and must have been admitted to practice law in New York for at least 10 years.[9][10]
Chief judge
The chief judge of the court of appeals is selected through the same assisted appointment method as other judges on the court and serves in that role for a full term. The position of chief judge is a specific seat on the court rather than a temporary leadership position.[9][10]
Vacancies
Midterm vacancies are filled by assisted appointment. The governor appoints a new judge from a list of qualified nominees submitted by a judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by the New York State Senate. The newly appointed judge serves a full 14-year term.[9][10]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
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Officeholder New York Court of Appeals |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The New York Times, "Michael Garcia Confirmed as Judge on New York Court of Appeals," February 8, 2016
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ State of New York Court of Appeals, "Honorable Michael J. Garcia," accessed August 6, 2021
- ↑ Times Union, "Garcia hits the rubber chicken dinner circuit," July 23, 2013
- ↑ New York Daily News, "Republican Michael Garcia not running against incumbent Democrat Eric Schneiderman for state attorney general: source," September 16, 2013
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: New York," accessed September 12, 2021
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 New York State, "The Constitution of the State of New York," accessed September 12, 2021 (Article VI)
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State resources:
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