A Judge's Perspective: The New York Rulings

Extract

After I was named Chief Judge of New York State, a position previously occupied by one of the noblest of jurists, Benjamin Cardozo, I went up to look at my new chambers and there was my new desk—the desk that had been used by Benjamin Cardozo. And I said to a friend of mine, “Just think of it, I will be seated and be using and will have Benjamin Cardozo's desk.” And he said, “Yes, but remember, 50 years from today, it will still be Benjamin Cardozo's desk.” We have through the likes of Benjamin Cardozo inherited a jurisprudential history in New York State.

The question that we now grapple with is a question which many states have had to face and the decisions from the state courts are diverse and often controversial. We were all waiting for the United States Supreme Court, that fountain of wisdom, to set the guidelines, so that we would have a standard to which we would look and adhere.