Top NY Judge’s ‘Stupid’ Sentencing Remark Draws Ethics Complaint

New York Republican lawmakers filed an ethics complaint with the state’s judicial watchdog against Chief Judge Rowan Wilson over remarks he made castigating the state’s sentencing laws and criticizing lower court judges.

The move escalates tensions between Republican state legislators and the state’s top court over rhetoric that Wilson’s critics say crossed into improper advocacy but his supporters say showed clarity.

“Wilson’s comments were clearly improper and provide reasonable doubt that he cannot act impartially as a judge,” according to the complaint, filed Wednesday by a group of GOP state Senate and Assembly members to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The commission is a state agency that investigates allegations of judicial misconduct against New York state judges, with disciplinary outcomes ranging from admonishment to removal. Robert H. Tembeckjian, counsel for the commission, said it’s “precluded by law from commenting.”

The comments that spurred the filing came last month when Wilson spoke at CUNY School of Law’s panel on the Second Look Act, a New York bill that would let prisoners apply for resentencing after serving part of their sentences.

“I’m responsible for a whole branch of government, and I don’t like stupidity,” Wilson said at the Feb. 27 event. Describing a prison system that keeps people incarcerated after they’re rehabilitated, he said, “Everything we are doing here is stupid.”

Wilson recalled reviewing an appeal in a case where a sentencing judge said the defendant should be “put in a cage for life.” Wilson told the audience, “When those judges come up to be elected, don’t vote for them, and get other people not to vote for them — that’s something you can do for me.”

Wilson, a former Cravath partner turned prolific liberal dissenter since joining New York’s top court as an associate judge in 2017, took over as chief judge in 2023.

Recently, he dipped his toe into politics by supporting Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s child care proposal.

The GOP lawmakers said Wilson’s recent remarks were part of a pattern of inappropriate political commentary.

A court spokesman said it is appropriate for Wilson to express his views on pending legislation that affects the court system and to encourage New Yorkers to pay attention to the conduct of the judges serving their communities.

Thomas Gant, an organizer at the Center for Community Alternatives, a group that co-hosted the Feb. 27 event, called the complaint “a calculated distraction from the true moral crisis in our justice system” and praised the chief judge’s “moral clarity.”