A Long Island judge ruled Tuesday that state Senate Democrats will not be able to use their old tricks if they want to block future judicial nominees they say are not left-wing enough.
The ruling follows the fierce fight over Gov. Hochul’s failed effort to get centrist judge Hector LaSalle confirmed to lead New York’s Court of Appeals, which spurred the lawsuit aiming to clarify whether a formal floor vote was required on all would-be judges.
“The judiciary committee can aid the full Senate by performing an investigative function, but it
cannot substitute for the power reserved to the Senate by the constitution,” Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Thomas Whelan wrote in a nine-page ruling in response to the lawsuit filed by Republican state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) against state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and other Democrats.
Stewart-Cousins insisted for weeks that a 10-9 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee – which she stacked with anti-LaSalle members beforehand – sufficed to reject Hochul’s nomination.
State Sen. Anthony Palumbo filed a lawsuit earlier this month to clarify whether all gubernatorial judicial picks must get full votes by the state Senate. AP
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said for weeks a committee vote on LaSalle would do – until suddenly reversing herself last week with a floor vote that sank his nomination for good. Hans PenninkBut Hochul and Republicans maintained the state Constitution still required a vote by the full Senate, with Palumbo eventually filing the lawsuit to force the issue.
Faced with the possibility of a precedent-setting defeat, Stewart-Cousins scheduled an unexpected floor vote last week on LaSalle’s nomination in a bid to make Palumbo’s suit moot.
LaSalle was defeated 39-20, but Whelan ruled following a hearing two days later that the Palumbo lawsuit could continue.
A decision by a Suffolk Supreme Court judge could make it easier for Hochul to get her next chief judge nomination confirmed without worrying about progressive resistance. Google Maps“Today’s decision from Judge Whelan confirms that Senate Democrats once again disregarded the State Constitution to support their partisan objectives,” said state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Lockport). “Instead of following the law, Senate Democrats stacked the Judiciary Committee with far-left legislators to defeat a historic Court of Appeals nominee.”
While Whelan’s decision will not help LaSalle’s bid to become the first Latino to serve as chief judge, it could make it much easier for Hochul to get another nominee approved sometime this spring once a state panel provides a list of seven eligible candidates.
State Senate Democrats have said they want a chief judge who would push the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, leftwards after years of a relatively conservative majority under ex-Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who resigned under a cloud of scandal last summer.
Ortt noted that progressive effort will be much harder unless the Tuesday decision in Suffolk County gets overturned by a higher court.
“This decision will have a significant role in protecting the independence of New York’s judicial system from far-left politicians,” he said.
