Judicial campaigns for re-election aren’t typically a source of controversy—judges are limited in what they can say publicly, and up-ticket races generally generate the big headlines. But when a judicial screening panel deemed Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan unqualified for re-election, it set off outrage in the legal community and accusations that discrimination played a role in a rare move to reject an incumbent judge.
Supporters said the panel was wrongly influenced by pro-landlord members who were upset with the judge’s history of pro-tenant opinions. Ling-Cohan, the first woman of Asian descent elected to the state Supreme Court in 2002, had backing from the Asian American bar as well as the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York, largely for being the first trial judge in New York state to approve same-sex marriage, even though it was reversed on appeal.
