Editor's foreword.

• Author: Bonventre, Vincent Martin

Who is your favorite judge of all time? If your answer is William Rehnquist, that says something about you. If, on the other hand, your answer is William Brennan, that says something very different. And if your answer is Sandra Day O'Connor or Lewis Powell, that says something else again.

The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, were asked a similar question. All of them. They were asked who their favorite Judges were in Court of Appeals history. The only restrictions: their favorites could not be alive and they could not be Benjamin Cardozo. At the 2008 Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke Symposium--a now-annual event hosted by State Constitutional Commentary--each Court of Appeals Judge answered the question. Every one of the seven attended the "Judges on Judges" Symposium and spoke about her or his favorite Judge of the past.

Recently retired Court of Appeals Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt moderated the presentations, as well as the equally informative question and answer session that followed. It was an extraordinary event to say the least: the entire high court of New York participating, each naming a favorite judge, and each telling us why. To say the least, the discussions were fascinating.

Without delving into what each Judge said--the complete transcripts of the Judges' presentations are included in this issue-let it at least be noted that the list of favorites was as intriguing and diverse as it was revealing. Chief Judge Judith Kaye picked her predecessor, Lawrence Cooke--a warm, big-hearted man who never lost his small town neighborliness and values (i.e. he was from Monticello, New York, which is also Kaye's original hometown), and who championed independent state constitutional protection of rights and liberties during his tenure on the Court. Next, Judge Carmen Ciparick chose Vito Titone--a fellow alum of St. John's Law School who, like her, had a jurisprudence (unmistakably "liberal") marked by empathy for the vulnerable and strictly demanding of governmental fairness.

Judge Victoria Graffeo selected Francis Bergan--an Albany Law grad, like Graffeo, whose love for the Court as an institution led him to author its first history, and whose friendship and mutual respect for a strong political figure was instrumental in his rise in the judiciary. Judge Susan Read picked John T. Loughran--an Associate Judge later elevated to Chief, he was a law professor early in his legal career who, once on the Court...