[ The judiciary committee voted not to advance the nomination of
Hector LaSalle, setting up a likely legal fight between the governor
and state Democrats. Gov. Hochul threated to hire a litigator to sue
the State Senate to take up the nomination.]
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IN MAJOR REBUKE, NEW YORK SENATE COMMITTEE REJECTS GOV. KATHY
HOCHUL’S COURT PICK  
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Prem Thakker
January 18, 2023
The New Republic
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_ The judiciary committee voted not to advance the nomination of
Hector LaSalle, setting up a likely legal fight between the governor
and state Democrats. Gov. Hochul threated to hire a litigator to sue
the State Senate to take up the nomination. _

New York Gov. Hochul stands by her chief judge nominee, even as the
State Senate Judiciary Committee votes not to advance the nomination
to the full Senate., WNYT-TV (Albany, NY)

 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s controversial nominee to lead the
state’s highest court has been rejected. In a Wednesday hearing, the
state’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted to prevent Judge Hector
LaSalle
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advancing to a Senate-wide vote, setting up a likely legal fight
between Democrats in the state.

The final vote count was 2–10–7, with only two members voting in
favor of totally advancing LaSalle. Ten members voted against LaSalle,
while one Democrat joined the committee’s six Republicans in voting
to advance LaSalle without recommendation. All in all, LaSalle’s
advancement fails by a vote of 9–10.

New York Senate Democrats voted against LaSalle due to concerns over
his judicial record on labor, abortion, and criminal justice. Hochul
did not heed their earlier warnings, and instead promised to do
“everything
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in her power to push him onto the state’s Court of Appeals. The
effort first began in December, when, just weeks after beating a
Republican during a midterm election in New York by only five points,
Hochul chose to nominate LaSalle, whose record has been criticized by
liberals, progressives, workers, and abortion voters as being
antagonistic to supposed Democratic values.

Instead of attempting to massage away the criticism, or just respond
to it and renominate someone else, Hochul dug her heels in.

On January 9, Ironworkers Vice President James Mahoney criticized
Hochul’s choice at a press conference, saying the nomination felt
like being put “on the menu.” He felt this way, he said,
particularly after he and other labor organizers worked so hard to
elect Hochul in the first place. Afterward, Hochul allegedly revoked
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invitation to her State of the State speech the following day.

On January 14, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tagged alongside
Hochul at a Bronx rally to endorse LaSalle. He is “highly qualified
to serve as the chief judge,” Jeffries said. “Period, full
stop.” (Recall that Jeffries is House minority leader, and not House
speaker, in large part thanks to the conservative majority on
the state’s top court
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which drew unfavorable district maps.)

Finally, in one of the most brazen and bizarre displays of commitment
to the nomination, Hochul appeared at two New York City churches
on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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rally support for her nomination.

“Dr. King called upon us to be just and to be fair and to not judge
people. And that has not been afforded to an individual named Judge
Hector LaSalle,” Hochul said. “My household knew the story of Dr.
King.… When he was gunned down, assassinated, my family sat there
and held hands and wept. How could this be? How could this man of God
who taught us about nonviolence and social justice and change, and not
judging people by the color of their skin, or one or two cases out of
5,000 cases decided.”

If the shocking use of her pulpit on such a day wasn’t enough,
Hochul presided over the police removal of activist and church
attendee Genesis Aquino, who stood up during Hochul’s appearance to
say she was praying for Hochul to heed tenants and working-class New
Yorkers, hoping she would withdraw LaSalle and support eviction reform
that would enable tenants to sue landlords for extreme rent increases.

All Hochul’s efforts were for naught. But she may not be done yet.
Despite the committee’s “no” vote, Hochul is reportedly hiring
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litigator to stake a legal battle on the basis of whether a nominee
can be voted down in the Judiciary Committee in the first place.

_[PREM THAKKER is an associate writer for breaking news at The New
Republic. His work has appeared in The American
Prospect, Washington Monthly, CNN podcasts, and his
newsletter Better World [[link removed]]..]_

* Kathy Hochul
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* New York
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* Democratic Party
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* Judge Hector LaSalle
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* Hakeem Jeffries
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* Working Families Party
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* WFP
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* New York jjudiciary
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* abortion
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* Labor
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* strike
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* Women
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