ALBANY – A bill to make Erie County its own judicial district passed the Assembly on Thursday as lawmakers rejected a request by the state court system to delay the proposal until next year.
The bill, which still needed to pass the State Senate, was one of several bills introduced by Western New York legislators to move through the Legislature in the dwindling days of the state's legislative session. A vote tally was not immediately available.
Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera, D-Buffalo, told fellow lawmakers that out of 67 justices in the Rochester-based Appellate Division of State Supreme Court's 4th Department, which encompasses all of Western New York, just two are Black and none are Asian or Hispanic. Those numbers alone, he said, indicate a "drowning out" of those populations because they are concentrated in the counties of Erie, Monroe and Onondaga.
All three counties would become their own judicial districts under the bill, which is co-sponsored by Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, D-Queens.
Under the bill, the Buffalo-based 8th Judicial District, which now covers Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Wyoming, Allegany, Orleans and Genesee counties, would just cover Erie County. The other counties would join a newly created "15th Judicial District," along with Livingston and Steuben counties.
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New York lawmakers were planning to pass a package of 10 bills Thursday to reform New York's embattled state prison system, including a proposal to require jailhouses to provide all video of inmate deaths to the attorney general's office within 72 hours.
On Wednesday, Erie County Republican Chair Michael Kracker said the bill was a politically motivated effort to consolidate Democratic power in one of the four counties – Erie – where election law legal challenges can be brought. During Thursday's Assembly vote, some Republicans, including Assembly Member Andrea Bailey, R-Geneseo, whose district includes a section of Wyoming County, noted that the state's unified court system had issued a statement asking the bill's sponsors to wait on the proposal until 2026.
A court system spokesperson said a delay would "give everyone sufficient time to consider whether this is the best way to divide the existing districts, and whether any other districts should be altered or created, which can be done only once every 10 years."
On Thursday, Rivera noted that New York law allows the State Legislature to reconfigure judicial districts every 10 years, a practice last exercised when lawmakers made Staten Island its own judicial district in 2007.
"The constitution of the state of New York is clear: It's the obligation of the Legislature to do this," Rivera said. "We have the responsibility to do this once every 10 years, and we have not done this in quite some time."
Rivera said the bill "aims to make sure our elected judges genuinely reflect the diverse communities they represent."
"Presently existing judicial district lines dilute the voices of various communities, preventing a representative judiciary from being elected," he added. "By drawing districts that accurately include and empower diverse populations, we can cultivate a judiciary that better understands and serves everyone building greater public trust and delivering more equitable justice."
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