Based in lower Manhattan, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals hears the appeals from the federal districts of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. Established in its current iteration in 1891, the Second Circuit remains one of the busiest in the country. This analysis examines the cases and the judges who heard them in the Circuit from January 2019 through June 2023.
The Judges
Over the last four years, 33 different judges heard cases in the Second Circuit. Of these, seven were appointed by Bill Clinton; five each by Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and George W. Bush; two each by George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter; and one by Gerald Ford.
Four judges retired over this time period; Robert Katzmann, Peter Hall, Christopher Droney, and Ralph Winter. Of the remaining 29, 13 are active judges, and the remainder are senior judges.
Of all the judges who heard cases, just under half (45.5%) were born in the Circuit. This is the fourth-lowest percentage of any circuit court. 75.8% of them attended a university in the circuit, the third highest of the thirteen circuits. 30.3% attended a public university, second only to the First Circuit. 90.9% of them attended a top 14 law school, tied with the D.C. Circuit for the highest percentage. 13 of judges having attended Yale, seven attended Harvard, and six attended Columbia.
Case Types
As is the case elsewhere at the appellate level, the majority (77.1%) of cases were filed as private suits. 12.1% arise under diversity jurisdiction. 9.9% of the cases are in federal court thanks to the United States being listed as a defendant, and 0.8% from the United States being listed as a plaintiff.
The most common case types, by a wide margin, are private suits listed under the Nature of Suit (NOS) code 3442 Civil Rights – Jobs and 3440 Other Civil Rights. Official definitions of all NOS codes can be found here.
For cases in which the federal government is a plaintiff, the top case type was 1850 Securities, Commodities, and Exchange. For cases in which the government is a defendant, the top case types were 2510 Prisoner – Vacate Sentence, 2440 Civil Rights – Other, and 2863 Social Security – DIWC/DIWW. For diversity jurisdiction cases, the top case types were 4190 Contract – Other and 4110 Insurance.
Employment Litigation
The plurality of cases heard before the Second Circuit fall under the NOS code 3442 Civil Rights – Jobs. The bulk of these cases involve a flurry of litigation under the heading In re: New York City Board of Education. In short, Elsa Gulino, Mayling Ralph, Peter Wilds, and Nia Green brought a class action suit against the New York City Board of Education over the test required to obtain teaching licenses. This decades-long class action lawsuit alleged that the aforementioned test did not predict classroom success, was not necessary for teaching positions, and unfairly discriminated against teachers of color. The plaintiffs have been represented by Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.
Law Firms
As the plurality of cases heard in the Second Circuit involve a governmental body as a party, the most active firms are various attorney’s offices of the federal Department of Justice and of New York City and State. Most active is the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, followed by the New York City Law Department, the New York State Office of the Attorney General. All of these offices’ monthly caseloads are highly correlated, suggesting the same underlying trends are resulting in cases they handle being appealed to the Second Circuit. The exception to this is the federal DOJ, whose monthly case loads only correlate with the New York City Law Department.
Top private firms include the aforementioned Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Brown Rudnick, Selendy Gay Elsberg.
