When Supreme Court Justice Bernadette Clark is in her car, residents will notice the judicial plates and say, “Hi judge.” The only problem is they’re talking to her husband.

“From my perspective up here, it’s the resistance to even thinking you can run for judge,” the Oneida County jurist said. “They would talk about my hair, my clothes, my makeup, the length of my skirt. I tried to change the conversation. Let’s talk about my qualifications.”