By Dan Murphy
NY Governor Kathy Hochul’s pick for Chief Judge of the NYS Court of Appeals, Hector LaSalle, appears to be after the Democratic controlled State Senate Judicial committee rejected moving the nomination to the full senate for a vote.
LaSalle was viewed by a majority of state senate democrats as too conservative and pro-life, and the decision not to allow an up or down full senate vote for LaSalle, came from State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and her caucus.
The debate over LaSalle continues, with Hochul and LaSalle’s supporters claiming that the entire senate needs to vote on his confirmation, and that the Governor might sue to get that full senate vote. But those sour graps shown by Hochul and Co., resulted in Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins releasing a statement, which read,
“This ongoing attack makes it clear that there are those that don’t accept the Senate’s role in this process, and will not be happy unless we simply act as a rubber stamp. This is a dangerous infringement of the separation of powers. More and more people are waking up to the importance and impacts of the courts based on the events of the past year. This senate takes our role seriously and we will continue to represent the best interests of the people. Justice LaSalle was rejected based on his record and after 5 hours of testimony.”
That comment, was viewed across New York political circles with joy or concern. Her supporters included Tom Watson, progressive democratic new yorker, who tweeted our headline, “Stewart-Cousins is leading New York’s Democratic Party right now”
The Upstater Tweeted, “I don’t think is NY politics folks talk enough about how great Andrea Stewart-Cousins is, and how much of a legacy she is going to leave as Senate leader.”
Former Governor George Pataki was not a fan of the power move. “This is a very big deal. It’s a question of who we have running the state – the governor or radical leftists in the legislature.”
Stewart-Cousins took questions from the media before the weekend. “We had the hearing we said we would always provide. The committee has spoken. The nomination was lost and I’m hoping we can move forward. It’s clear that this nominee was rejected and that’s it. We have to find a nominee that will be supported by the majority of the Senate and then get on with that.”
The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal said that progressives democrats who now control both the senate and assembly, should not accept judicial nominations from anyone who is also running on the Conservative party line. LaSalle had run for Judge before on the democratic, republican and conservative party lines.
“That’s a decision to take a line from a party that is opposed to reproductive health, that is opposed to workers rights, that is opposed to LGBTQ marriage equality. I hope we have made it clear moving forward that we will not accept the nomination of judges who run on that line,” said Hoylman-Sigal, whose comment drew the wrath of NYS Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar, who said “the progressive Chairman of the State Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal of Manhattan, declared today that any judicial nominee in New York running on the Conservative Party line should be summarily rejected for consideration. In other words, Senator Hoylman-Sigal wants prospective judges pre-judged in this state to meet his own ideological bent. Maybe it’s time that the Conservative Party reconsider its cross endorsements of Democrats.”
“Serious people understand that Mr. Hoylman-Sigal is not among them, but his position as Senate Judiciary Chairman is cause for genuine alarm. How is it possible that a man with such prejudices is in a position to so radically affect our judicial system and the lives of each and every New Yorker? Isn’t justice supposed to be blind?” said Kassar.
