According to the New York Times, Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam chose to die.
“On Wednesday, after responding to an emergency call, officers found the body of Judge Abdus-Salaam, the first black woman and the first Muslim to serve on New York State’s highest court, in the Hudson River with no apparent signs of trauma and no indications of foul play.
On the court, Judge Abdus-Salaam was among the most reliable and steadfast liberal voices, regularly siding with vulnerable parties — the poor, impoverished immigrants and people with mental illnesses, for instance — against more powerful and established interests.
Among her colleagues, she was admired for her thoughtfulness, her candor and her finely crafted and restrained writing style. She was not one to use her decisions as a soapbox to make high-sounding political points or to wax poetic, even when her rulings set precedents.”
Why do misogynistic judges who let rapist go free so they can go to college seem to live forever and progressive judges like Abdus-Salaam feel like they can’t go on? The story says her brother killed himself in 2014, and I’ve seen stories where some elements of suicide are hereditary, but we need more people like her in the judiciary, especially during the Trumpocalypse.
