Judith Ann Kaye (née 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 1993 to 2008.

Her parents, Benjamin and Lena (née Cohen) Smith, were Jewish immigrants from Poland who lived on a farm in Sullivan County, New York, and operated a women's apparel store.

[2] While raising a family, Kaye worked as a part-time assistant to the dean of the New York University Law School, her alma mater.

[2] In 1969, Kaye was hired by the prominent law firm of Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O'Donnell & Weyher as a litigation associate.

[2] After another vacancy occurred, however, the commission listed two women on its list of seven candidates: Kaye (who was at the time 44 years old and a commercial litigator) and Betty Weinberg Ellerin (a judge on the New York Supreme Court, the trial court in New York, and the former president of the Women's Bar Association).

[6][7] In November 1992, Chief Judge Sol Wachtler resigned after being arrested on charges that he extorted money from a former lover.

[8][9] With her term set to expire, Governor Eliot Spitzer renominated Kaye as chief judge on February 7, 2007.

[2][11] New York State became a national leader in establishing problem-solving courts, which offered treatment and other alternatives to incarceration in cases involving addiction, mental illness, or domestic violence and abuse.

[2] Kaye was viewed as a liberal, but was perceived as moving toward the pragmatic center after becoming chief judge, in an effort to build consensus among the justices.

[21] Kaye had "made occasional negative references to the mandatory retirement requirement, once saying experienced jurists were being forced from the bench to the 'great detriment' of the courts.

In February 2009, Kaye joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York City as of counsel.

[27][28] Governor Paterson appointed Kaye to the twelve-member Commission on Judicial Nomination for a four-year term beginning March 31, 2009.

Benjamin Cardozo, one of Kaye's predecessors as chief judge of the Court of Appeals of New York, was a congregant at the same synagogue.