(The Center Square) — New York Senate Republicans have filed a lawsuit to force the state Senate to vote on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee for the state’s top judicial post.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court Thursday, names the Senate’s Democratic leadership as defendants and argues the Judiciary Committee violated the state Constitution by not forwarding Hector LaSalle’s nomination as chief judge of the state Court of Appeals to the full Senate for a vote.
Filed by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, state Sen. Anthony Palumbo, R-Riverhead, the lawsuit calls on the court to require the full Senate to hold a vote on LaSalle’s nomination.
“This case presents a clear and immediate controversy, ripe for adjudication because the nomination has been neither confirmed nor rejected,” Palumbo’s attorney wrote in the 19-page complaint.
Palumbo said the panel “serves only as an advisory body, providing advice and consent to the full Senate, and isn’t the final arbiter of judicial nominations.”
“The New York State Constitution is clear judicial nominations must be considered before the full Senate,” he said in a statement. “Justice LaSalle is entitled to an up or down vote by the full state Senate, not as a courtesy, but because the Constitution requires it.”
LaSalle’s nomination was voted down last month by the committee in a 10 to nine vote, with only two Democrats on the 19-member panel voting to advance it.
Hochul had suggested a legal challenge to force a full Senate vote, but hasn’t taken that step.
The lawsuit points out some Democratic senators signaled their opposition to Lasalle’s nomination, even before it came before the committee, over his perceived conservative views on abortion access, worker rights and other issues.
“Thus, the ten senators clearly believe that they have the power to impose an unconstitutional litmus test for a chief judge candidate put forward by the governor,” the lawsuit states.
LaSalle, who was vying to become the first Latino chief judge, currently serves as a presiding justice of the Second Department, the nation’s largest state appellate court with a budget of nearly $69 million. He was tapped to fill a vacancy in 2021 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In August, Judge Janet DiFiore, a conservative who was loyal to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, stepped down and broke up the four to three conservative majority on New York’s Court of Appeals.
The fight over LaSalle’s confirmation has garnered national attention amid the political infighting between the state’s top Democrats over filling the post with a fellow Democrat.
