NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s highest court has named Associate Justice Anthony Cannataro to serve as acting chief justice following the departure of Janet DiFiore next week.
Cannataro, the former New York Civil Court administrative judge, has served as a member of the state Court of Appeals since June 2021.
He will remain in office on an interim basis until a new chief justice is appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul and confirmed by the state senate.
The state Judicial Nominating Commission, which selects candidates for vacancies on the Court of Appeals, said it is currently reviewing nominations to replace DiFiore, who will leave Aug. 31.
As acting chief justice, Cannataro, 57, will have a dual role: leading the seven-member high court and overseeing the functioning of the state’s entire judicial system.
Cannataro, the son of Italian immigrants and a graduate of Columbia University and New York Law School, was first elected to the bench in 2011, serving as a family court judge in Brooklyn and judge in civil court in the Bronx.
In 2016, he was appointed supervising judge of Manhattan Civil Court. The following year, he was appointed administrative judge in the civil court of the city.
Cannataro, who lives with her husband in Westchester County, has served on several court and bar association committees, including as co-chair of the Richard C. Failla LGBT Commission, according to her court biography.
DiFiore, the state’s chief justice for six years, announced her resignation in a letter to her colleagues last month, saying she needed to “move on to the next chapter of my professional life.” She did not specify what she intended to do next.
DiFiore, 66, was a district attorney in suburban Westchester County until then governor. Andrew Cuomo appointed her to the Court of Appeals in 2015. She is New York’s second female Chief Justice.
Cuomo appointed Cannataro to the Court of Appeal in May 2021, one of two judges he installed on the High Court in his final months in office. The state senate confirmed Cannataro’s nomination in June 2021.
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