Joette Katz
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Joette Katz, born Feb. 3, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, is an Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Katz was nominated for the Superior Court bench by Gov. William A. O'Neill in 1989 and nominated for the state Supreme Court by Gov. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. in 1992. She currently serves as administrative judge for the state appellate system, a position she also held from 1994-2000.
Prior to her appointment to the bench, Justice Katz served as chief of legal services for the Office of the Chief Public Defender from 1983 to 1989. She served as an assistant public defender from 1978 to 1983. Before that, Justice Katz was an associate at Winnick Vine and Welch in Shelton.
Justice Katz has served on numerous committees and commissions, including the Ad Hoc Criminal Justice Committee, the American Law Institute Sentencing Advisory Committee, the Commission to Revise Connecticut Appellate rules, Inns of Courts, Connecticut’s Evidence Code Drafting Committee (which she chairs), the Law Revision Commission, the Public Defender Commission, the Connecticut Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules (which she chaired) and the Client Security Fund (which she chairs).
She is co-author of the book, Connecticut Criminal Caselaw Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide, published in 1989 by the Connecticut Law Tribune. As an Associate Justice, she has authored approximately 350 majority opinions and 25 concurring and dissenting opinions.
Justice Katz is an instructor of ethics at the Yale Law School in New Haven. She also is an instructor of criminal law and ethics at the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden. She also served from 1981 to 1984 as an instructor in legal research and writing, Moot Court, and appellate advocacy at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Justice Katz has received many awards and honors, including The Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund’s Maria Miller Stewart Award in 1993, the National Organization for Women’s Harriet Tubman Award in 1993, the University of Connecticut School of Law’s Distinguished Graduate Award in 2000, the National Council of Jewish Women’s Women of Distinction Award in 2001, the Connecticut Bar Association’s Henry J. Naruk Judiciary Award in 2004 as well as an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from Quinnipiac University School of Law.
She received a bachelor of arts degree, graduating cum laude, in 1974 from Brandeis University and her law degree, graduating cum laude, from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1977. She is married to Philip Rubin.
Among Justice Katz's more publicized opinions was State v. Bell [1] where "the high court unanimously upheld the conviction of Arnold Bell, who had shot a New Haven police officer, but found part of a law giving him a stiffer sentence as a persistent dangerous offender unconstitutional. The court ruled that a jury, not a judge, must make that determination." This decision led prominent legislators to conclude it had effectively voided the state's persistent violent offender law, and a new law would need to be implemented.[2] [3] Another controversial case was State v. Johnson where she authored the majority opinion that the shooting of a state trooper 17 times at point blank range did not meet the standard for "especially cruel or heinous." As a result, the death penalty was overturned and the sentence was eventually changed to life without parole. While the Court claimed it was following the intent of the legislature, this decision and a subsequent death penalty decision State v. Courchesne led the General Assembly to pass a "plain meaning" statute regarding statutory intrepretation. [4] Justice Katz joined the minority in the Kelo v. New London case (2004), which was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Connecticut case, the majority sided with the city in an en banc 4-3 decision, with the opinion authored by Justice Norcott and joined by Justices Borden, Palmer and Vertefeuille. The dissent was authored by Justice Zarella (joined by Justices Sullivan and Katz). The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Connecticut Supreme Court's decision in favor of the city, in a 5-4 decision, with the dissent written by Justice O'Connor and joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and Thomas. The Kelo decision is studied as a continuation of the expansion of governments' power to seize property through eminent domain, although the widespread negative popular reaction has spurred a backlash in which many state legislatures have curtailed their eminent domain power.
