A New York state Senate committee has deemed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee unfit to lead the state’s highest court, saying that the Democrat is not progressive enough for the job.
In a 10–9 vote, the progressive wing of the Senate Judiciary Committee successfully torpedoed Hochul’s nomination of Hector LaSalle to lead the New York State Court of Appeals. Three Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in supporting LaSalle’s bid to become the first Hispanic to hold that position.
“The nomination is lost,” Senate Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who voted against LaSalle, said after Wednesday’s vote.
Not to long before the vote, the 15-member committee was packed with three more Democrats and one Republican, a maneuver largely seen as designed to give progressive Democrats just enough votes to prevent the nomination from reaching the 63-member full Senate, where LaSalle would very likely secure a bipartisan simple majority and get confirmed.
“While the Committee plays a role, we believe the Constitution requires action by the full Senate,” the governor argued.
On top of that, Hochul claimed that LaSalle didn’t get a fair hearing from the committee, calling the outcome “predetermined.”
“While this was a thorough hearing, it was not a fair one, because the outcome was predetermined,” she said. “Several Senators stated how they were going to vote before the hearing even began—including those who were recently given seats on the newly expanded Judiciary Committee.”
In the final vote, just two senators actually voted in favor of the nomination. Ten senators voted in opposition, with the rest seven voting to advance the nomination without recommendation.
“Like every judge, I know that not everyone agrees with every ruling,” LaSalle told the committee. “But I can promise you that in every case, I have sought and will continue to seek to give everyone a fair shake, to listen to arguments carefully, to do my best to apply the law to the facts before us, and to work with my colleagues to reach a fair and just result.”
LaSalle, who currently serves on the Second Department of the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Brooklyn, has faced aggressive opposition from progressive Democrats, labor unions, and social justice activists over a handful of decisions. Opponents say those rulings show that LaSalle is too conservative on issues such as abortion and labor rights, while his defendants praise him for being able to not let personal beliefs interfere with his judgments.
Some pro-abortion activists also took issue with a 2017 ruling in which LaSalle joined four other judges to form a unanimous opinion in favor of Evergreen, a non-profit clinic chain that provides pregnancy services from a pro-life perspective. The ruling limited the scope of information then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman could demand Evergreen provide.
LaSalle would have replaced former Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who took a relatively centrist approach during her 14-year tenure. DiFiore resigned last summer amid an ongoing ethics probe.
