I can think of no greater or more satisfying Christmas present from the leftist state senators and their allies who exploded in the wake of Governor Kathy Hochul’s nomination of Judge Hector LaSalle as Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals. York.
From the moment former Chief Justice DiFiore announced his retirement, the left has sought to turn the appeal for his vacant appeals court seat into an ideological battleground. Led by Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, progressives denounced DiFiore and his so-called “conservative bloc” of four judges.
They have promised to redo the court and have promised to block any candidate who does not possess progressive bona fides. Gianaris & Co. didn’t want moderate lawyers who hadn’t been drinking Kool-Aid Democratic Socialist/Woke/Fund Police. And they certainly didn’t want someone who was a former prosecutor and advocated for crime victims.
Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar — whose biographical falsehoods rival those of Representative-elect George Santos — told the New York Focus she was “[d]deeply disappointed by the appointment as governor of a person with a clearly anti-union and fundamentally conservative background.
A so-called coalition of progressive groups opposed to LaSalle specifically cited his former prosecutorial career as a bias that allegedly “threatened the civil liberties of New Yorkers.” None of these statements are true. Nor the claim that Judge LaSalle is against abortion. The cases are carefully selected and the facts have been deliberately distorted.
There is no legitimate reason against confirming Judge LaSalle as the next Chief Justice of the AOC. His detractors – who bleat that democracy is at stake – are no different from a lynching mob that respects only judicial outcomes it agrees with.
By all accounts, LaSalle is a highly intelligent Puerto Rican judge whose judicial history, temperament, and instincts show him that he follows the law rather than political ideology. This small crowd of vocal illiberal hypocritical progressives want judges who bend the law to political and ideological trends. If he’s wrong on the conservative right, then he’s wrong on the left.
Unfortunately, some Democrats in the Senate fear that if their fellow leftists drop Judge LaSalle, it would allow Republicans to cast the votes needed to confirm him, allowing the GOP to make further inroads among Latino voters.
The Chief Justice’s role is not to be the darling of either side. The Chief Justice’s role is to bring justice to the people of New York. It would be a slap in the face to the Puerto Rican community and other fledgling Latino groups if some closeted political ideologues stood in the way of confirming Justice LaSalle as the first Hispanic Chief Justice State Appeal.
As a Black Democrat who earned her rank by working in the political trenches of a predominantly Puerto Rican community to achieve greater Hispanic diversity and representation in legislative and judicial bodies, I am immensely proud of Judge Hector LaSalle and his historic moment. To that end, I urge Republican state senators to join their Democratic colleagues in affirming Judge LaSalle. It is important that Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate unite in support of the rule of law and facts, not political ideology.
Governor Hochul was right to appoint Judge Hector LaSalle. With Judge LaSalle leading the Court of Appeals, New Yorkers will see that justice is served.
Editorial Board Member Michael Benjamin is a former Assemblyman.
