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The courts have become a strong GOTV motivator for Democrats ever since too many people dropped the ball in 2016, which helped Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell pack the courts with rightwing zealots. The courts were rightly a big deal during the 2022 midterms, after the MAGA Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, and we knew that when Republicans are in power, they nominate and confirm Federalist Society centerfold hacks, many of whom are so young they’re still teething.
That’s why what’s happening in New York right now is so damn confusing.
Last July, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore abruptly resigned from New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s top court. This gave Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, the chance to “reshape the bench” and drive a stake through the rightwing majority. She wrote in an op-ed for the New York Daily News:
The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken — with decisions such as Dobbs vs. Jackson, taking away a woman’s right to choose, and New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen, tossing a century-old law protecting New Yorkers from the proliferation of guns. We are now relying on our state courts more than ever to protect our rights. We need our courts to defend against this Supreme Court’s rapid retreat from precedent and continue our march toward progress.
Hochul announced her choice in December, after winning reelection to a full term, and it’s an understatement to say that Judge Hector LaSalle was not what many Democrats expected or wanted.
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A former prosecutor, LaSalle had what many Democrats considered a conservative record on abortion, unions, and criminal defendants. You can expect that New York Democrats would want to show that they’re “tough on crime” these days, but the party should remain overtly pro-labor and pro-abortion rights. Despite the media framing, this isn’t necessarily a “showdown” between New York moderates and progressives.
Let’s first pause for a moment to recall that Judge DeFiore — a gift from disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — led a bloc of conservatives that invalidated Democrats’ congressional map and replaced it with a sexy-time map for Republicans, who literally owe their narrow House majority to this decision.
Predictably, most New York Democrats weren’t thrilled with Hochul’s pick, and Wednesday the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee rejected LaSalle. Getting publicly owned like a Cuban shoe factory by your own party is not how a governor wants to kick off the new year.
LaSalle would’ve been the first Latino to serve on the Court of Appeals, but there are probably other qualified Latino judges in New York who unambiguously support abortion rights and unions. Latino Democrats such as former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer lobbied on LaSalle’s behalf and released a statement claiming he was the victim of “an unprecedented, disingenuous and unhinged campaign to distort” his record. Conversely, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund opposed his nomination, citing “judicial decisions he has signed in cases limiting the rights of people of color, women, workers, people who are accused of crimes, people who are incarcerated, and people who are immigrants.”
Rebecca C. Lewis at City & State New Yorkgoes into further detail about LaSalle’s judicial history:
LaSalle’s decision to join opinions in two particular cases – Cablevision Systems Corp. v. Communications Workers of America District 1 and Evergreen Association Inc. v. Schneiderman – have made up the core of the arguments for LaSalle’s alleged anti-labor and anti-abortion rights beliefs. In the Cablevision case, he joined a unanimous decision among the appellate panel of judges to allow a lawsuit from Cablevision against individual union members to advance. In the Evergreen case, he joined a majority decision limiting the subpoena power of the state attorney general in relation to an investigation into a crisis pregnancy center. Opponents and supporters have argued the merits of those decisions, with supporters making the case that they were simply procedural and opponents saying they were evidence of a clear conservative bias.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries from New York appeared with Hochul Saturday and insisted LaSalle was “highly qualified to serve as the chief judge. Period. Full stop.” But “highly qualified” is a loaded term post-Roe. People argued that John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch were “qualified.” Legal acumen isn’t the issue so much as how a judge will wield that knowledge on the bench, and Democrats are still bearing the scars from Judge DeFiore. It’s reasonable that some Democrats might prefer a nominee who’d freak out Elise Stefanik.
During a tense hearing before the judicial committee, LaSalle defended his record. However, we’ve probably all grown cynical enough to not put much weight into what a nominee says during their confirmation hearing. What matters more is their past rulings. It was also revealing that all 10 committee members who voted against the judge were Democrats. Only two Democrats voted to advance his nomination while one Democrat and all six Republicans voted in favor “without recommendation.” New York Republicans would’ve probably noticed if LaSalle was truly a liberal judge. Hate to admit it, but you almost want Republicans to reflexively smearing your nominee as a pedophile-friendly groomer.
Hochul went to the mattresses over this nomination, which she pursued ever after Senate Democratic leadership told her that of all the names on her shortlist, LaSalle was the one for whom they couldn’t guarantee the votes.
Her effusive backing of LaSalle took an odd turn during a Sunday speech at Sunset Park’s Trinity Lutheran Church where she invoked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to defend LaSalle from criticism. “Dr. King called upon us to be just and to be fair and to not judge people,” she said, according to HellGate. “And that has not been afforded to an individual named Judge Hector LaSalle. And I know in my heart that we’re better than that.”
She couldn’t even get that one Martin Luther King Jr. quote right! Dr. King said he wanted his children to “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He’s not opposed to judging. However, Hochul implied that opposition to LaSalle was somehow based on his ethnicity. That’s the garbage Republicans sling when Democrats don’t embrace some MAGA loon just because they’re a woman, a person of color, and/or gay.
Slate described the nomination last year as an “absolute disaster” for the party. I thought that was a bit much, but then the Buffalo Newsreported Tuesday that even before the hearing, Hochul was retaining a lawyer and possibly suing Senate Democrats over LaSalle’s scuttled nomination. The legal question is apparently whether a nominee can be voted down in committee or whether they’re entitled to a full chamber vote. (Democrats have a supermajority in the Senate so that would seemingly only delay the inevitable.) Barack Obama could probably tell Hochul how well that might hold up in court. Maybe she should see about arranging for LaSalle to become attorney general. That’s the going consolation prize.
[New York Magazine / New York Times / Slate]
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