Zarella sat on the court he was appointed by Governor John G. Rowland in January 2001 until his retirement on December 31, 2016.
A widespread negative reaction to the opinion led to many state legislatures restricting their eminent domain power.
On March 24, 2006, Zarella was nominated by Governor M. Jodi Rell to replace Chief Justice William J. Sullivan, who had announced his retirement[3] scheduled for April 15, 2005.
The Connecticut Supreme Court became embroiled in a lengthy ethics scandal, however, when the Hartford Courant revealed that Sullivan had postponed the publication of a controversial decision opposing Freedom of Information Act requests for documents that track the status and history of legal cases in the Connecticut legal system until hearings for Zarella were completed.
On October 10, 2008, Zarella dissented in the case of Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, in which the court held that gay and lesbian couples could not be denied the right to marry because of the Equal Protection Clause of the state constitution.