Flemming Norcott
From Ballotpedia
Flemming Norcott
Prior offices
Connecticut Supreme Court
Education
Flemming L. Norcott, Jr. was an associate justice of the seven member Connecticut Supreme Court. He officially retired on October 11, 2013 at the age of 70, which is the mandatory retirement age for judges in Connecticut.[1] He was appointed to the court in the state's Commission-selection, political appointment method of judicial selection by Governor Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. in 1992.
Education
Flemming received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1965 and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 1968.[2]
Professional career
After his admission to the bar, Justice Norcott worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a lecturer in the faculty of law at the University of East Africa. He then served on the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporations Legal Staff in New York City and later as an Assistant Attorney General in the United States Virgin Islands. Norcott was nominated to the Connecticut Superior Court in 1979 where he served until joining the Appellate Court in 1987. In 1992 he was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court where he served until his retirement.[2]
Awards and associations
Awards
- Honorary LL.D., the University of New Haven, 1993
- Honorary Doctor of Human Letters, Albertus Magnus College, 2004
- Franklin H. Williams Award, U.S. Peace Corps[2]
Associations
- Associate Fellow, Calhoun College at Yale
- Honorary Member, Golden Key National Honor Society
- Member, Omega Psi Phi
- Member, Sigma Pi Phi
- Member, Beta Tau Boule
- Member, University of New Haven Board of Governors
- Member, Connecticut Bar Foundation
- Member, Eastern Collegiate Football Officials Association
- Former Examiner, Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities[2]
Notable opinions
Norcott joined with the 4-3 majority in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, the October 10, 2008 decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut.[3]
Political ideology
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Norcott received a campaign finance score of -0.17, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was more liberal than the average score of 0.05 that justices received in Connecticut.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[4]
See also
External links
- Connecticut Supreme Court
- Hartford Courant, "State High Court Ruling Cites Need for Quantifying Education Quality," March 23, 2010
- Albany Law Review, "The Evolution of State Constitutional Law in Connecticut," August 16, 2009 (dead link)
- State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, "Remarks of Justice Flemming L. Norcott, Jr. on the occasion of the Supreme Court 200th Anniversary Celebration," June 6, 2008
- The New York Times, "A Top Judge in Connecticut Is Suspended," February 19, 1994
Footnotes
- ↑ www.ctpost.com, "Malloy gets another chance to shape state's high court," September 28, 2013
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, Justice Fleming L. Norcott, Jr.
- ↑ New York Times, "Gay marriage is ruled legal in Connecticut," October 10, 2008
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
