Sidney Asher Fine

Sidney Asher Fine (September 14, 1903 – April 23, 1982) was an American lawyer, legislator, and jurist who served three terms as a Democratic Representative from New York in the United States Congress and later as a justice of the New York Supreme Court. He was born on September 14, 1903, in New York City, New York, into a Jewish family, and spent virtually his entire life and career in the city whose legal and political institutions he would later help shape.

Fine pursued his education in New York, graduating from the City College of New York in 1923. He continued his studies at Columbia Law School, from which he received his law degree in 1926. After admission to the bar, he entered the practice of law in New York City, establishing himself as an attorney before turning to elective office. His legal training and experience provided the foundation for his subsequent work as a legislator and, later, as a judge on the state’s highest trial court.

Fine’s political career began in the New York State Legislature. He was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly from Bronx County’s 2nd District, serving in 1945 and 1946. He then advanced to the New York State Senate, representing the 24th District from 1947 to 1950. During this period, he sat in the 166th and 167th New York State Legislatures, participating in the post–World War II reorientation of state policy and gaining experience in legislative procedure, public finance, and the governance of a rapidly growing urban state.

Building on his state legislative service, Fine was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives. He won election to the 82nd, 83rd, and 84th Congresses and held office from January 3, 1951, until his resignation on January 2, 1956. Representing a New York district during a significant period in American history marked by the early Cold War, the Korean War, and the beginnings of the modern civil rights era, Sidney Asher Fine contributed to the legislative process over three terms in office. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents in New York, aligning with the Democratic Party on national policy questions of the time.

Fine resigned from Congress at the start of 1956 to assume judicial office. That same year he became a justice of the New York Supreme Court, the state’s principal trial court of general jurisdiction, beginning a judicial career that would last nearly two decades. He served as a justice of the New York Supreme Court from 1956 to 1973, presiding over a wide range of civil and criminal matters during a period of substantial social and legal change in New York. After stepping down from regular active service, he continued to serve the court system as an Official Referee—essentially a senior judge assigned to additional judicial duties—from 1974 to 1975, helping to manage the court’s caseload and lending his long experience to the resolution of complex cases.

In his personal life, Fine was married to Libby Poresky. The couple had two sons who also pursued careers in law and public service. Their son Burton M. Fine served in the New York State Assembly in the 1960s and has practiced law in New York since 1958, continuing the family’s involvement in the state’s legal and political life. Another son, Ralph Adam Fine, became a judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, extending the family’s judicial legacy beyond New York.

Sidney Asher Fine remained closely tied to New York City throughout his life and career. He died there on April 23, 1982. His career spanned private legal practice, service in both houses of the New York State Legislature, three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1951 to 1956, and a long tenure on the New York Supreme Court from 1956 to 1973, followed by service as an Official Referee from 1974 to 1975, marking him as a significant figure in mid‑twentieth‑century American law and politics.