Leland George DeGrasse (born 1945/1946) was a judge in New York, New York, who served for seven years as an associate justice of the New York

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, or simply the First Department, is one of the four geographical components of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, the intermediate appellate c ...

Early life and education

DeGrasse was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His father was a postal clerk, his mother became a computer programmer. As a child, he studied in Catholic school. In 1967, he graduated from St. John's University with a degree in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

. He is a 1972 graduate of

Howard University School of Law Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the oldes ...

Legal career

He was an Assistant District Attorney with the

Bronx County District Attorney The Bronx County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for Bronx County, which is coterminous with the Borough of the Bronx, in New York City. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws. (Fed ...

's office between 1972 and 1975. He subsequently served on the

New York City Civil Court The Civil Court of the City of New York is a civil court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that decides lawsuits involving claims for damages up to $25,000 and includes a small claims part (small claims court) for cases in ...

from 1985 to 1988. He was a New York Supreme Court Justice, 1st Judicial District, from 1988 to 2008. He was designated a Justice for the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department in 2008 by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

David Paterson David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...

. He retired from the bench in 2015. He is best known for being the trial judge in the case of '' Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State'', which was brought to compel an overhaul of state aid-to-education formulas. His decision was appealed all the way up to the New York Court of Appeals. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals ordered an additional $1.9 billion in state aid annually for New York City's schools.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Degrasse, Leland 1940s births Living people New York (state) lawyers Politicians from New York City St. John's University (New York City) alumni Howard University School of Law alumni Lawyers from New York City New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department justices