Peter T. Zarella

Peter T. Zarella (born October 13, 1949) is a former Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Zarella sat on the court he was appointed by Governor John G. Rowland in January 2001 till his retirement on December 31, 2016.

Zarella is a native of Boston. He received his B.S. from Northeastern University in 1972 and his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in 1975.

Zarella was in private practice from 1977 to 1996, and was a partner in the Hartford firm of Brown, Paindiris & Zarella from 1978 until 1996, when he was appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court. In December 1999, Zarella was elevated to the Connecticut Appellate Court.

Governor John G. Rowland nominated Zarella as an Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court on January 4, 2001, and was sworn in on January 22, 2001.

In 2004, Zarella authored the dissenting opinion (joined by then-Chief Justice William J. Sullivan and Associate Justice Joette Katz) in the important Kelo v. City of New London case. The case was decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court in a 4-3 en banc decision, with the majority opinion authored by Justice Flemming L. Norcott, Jr., joined by Justices David M. Borden, Richard N. Palmer and Christine S. Vertefeuille. The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the Connecticut Supreme Court's decision in favor of the city in a 5-4 decision, in what is viewed as a major decision in the history of the eminent domain power. A widespread negative reaction to the opinion led to many state legislatures restricting their eminent domain power.

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