Robert Sherlock Smith (born August 31, 1944) is a former Associate Judge of the

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

, New York's

highest court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. Smith retired on December 31, 2014, as the State Constitution's requirement that judges retire at the end of the calendar year in which they reached the age of 70.

Early life and education

Smith 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 ...

in 1944, and grew up in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. He graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1965 and from Columbia Law School in 1968, where he was editor-in-chief of the law review.

Pre-judicial career

From 1968 to 2003 he practiced law in New York City with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, taking a one-year leave of absence in 1980–81 to serve as Visiting Professor from Practice at Columbia Law School. In private practice, Smith was best known for representing a shopping center in a case, Shad Alliance v. Smith Haven Mall, that established that the right of free speech does not require shopping centers to allow people to hand out literature on their property; for representing United Airlines' pilots' union in its attempt to take over

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

; and for arguing two death penalty appeals before the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Court of Appeals

On November 4, 2003, he was appointed 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 ...

George Pataki to the Court of Appeals. During his first year, he emerged as the court's most vigorous questioner from the bench. In October 2011, Smith gave the keynote address at the Seventh Annual Friedrich A. von Hayek Lecture, "The Hayekian Judge," sponsored by New York University Journal of Law and Liberty. He was introduced by

Richard Epstein Richard Allen Epstein (born April 17, 1943) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on torts, contracts, property rights, law and economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at ...

. Judge Smith teaches a class at the

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. p ...

with former dean

David Rudenstine David Rudenstine is the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law's Sheldon H. Solow Professor of Law. He teaches United States constitutional law. Rudenstine has been teaching at Cardozo since 1979 and is the author of ''The Day the Presses Stopped: A Hi ...

on the subject of President Trump and the constitutional order.

Notable opinions

*He wrote a plurality opinion in '' Pataki v. Silver'', upholding the Governor's power over the state budget. *He wrote a dissent in ''

People v. LaValle ''People v. LaValle'', 3 N.Y.3d 88 (2004), was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of ...

'', in which the majority ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional. *On July 6, 2006, Smith wrote the main opinion in ''Hernandez v. Robles'', a 4-2 decision, declaring that same-sex marriage in New York was not constitutionally required, and was to be left to the legislature. Chief Judge

Judith Kaye Judith Ann Kaye ( Smith; August 4, 1938 – January 7, 2016) was an American lawyer, jurist and the longtime Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, serving in that position from March 23, 1993, until December 31, 2008. She was the firs ...

wrote the dissent. *On October 23, 2007, in '' People v. Taylor'', he sided with the majority in upholding ''

'', on the grounds of

stare decisis A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

Post-judicial career

Smith became a partner in New York City law firm Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP on January 1, 2015, one day after retiring from the Court of Appeals.

Personal

Smith is married to Dian Goldston Smith. His sons are journalist Ben Smith(6 October200
WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Liena Zagare, Benjamin Smith
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and educator Emlen Smith, and his daughter is lawyer Rosemary Szanyi. Smith is a Christian while his wife is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

References

External links

NY State Court of Appeals official biography page

The Independent Jurist: An Analysis of Judge Robert S. Smith's Dissenting Opinions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Robert S Judges of the New York Court of Appeals New York (state) lawyers Stanford University alumni Columbia Law School alumni Columbia Law School faculty Living people 1944 births Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people 21st-century American judges