In a sharply worded letter firing back at an association of minority judges that criticized the state court system’s cutting of 46 older judges, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote that the group’s claim that the judiciary had signaled the termination was motivated by “ageism” was “reckless and irresponsible” and “completely false.”

“You claim that Judge [Lawrence] Marks’ September 29, 2020 Memorandum” outlining the state Administrative Board’s decision not to certify or recertify to the bench 46 older judges due to a $300 million budget cut “somehow ‘articulated’ that the Board’s decision was motivated by ageism,” DiFiore wrote in a letter to the Judicial Friends Association, which was established in 1976 by local, state and federal African American judges in New York who seek fair and just treatment of African American judges, judicial staff and attorneys. “Not only is that reckless and irresponsible allegation completely false,” wrote DiFiore, “but I have read and re-read the Memorandum in question and cannot conceive of any rational reading of that memo that could lead you to such a conclusion.”