LaSalle Is Rejected by New York Senate Panel in a 10-9 Vote

not being chief judge. His decision in Bridgeforth was particularly horrifying.

For real???

Do you have an actual source?

is an editor at Law & Crime - https://lawandcrime.com/

"a rando on Twitter" and apparently they are not.

The NY state Senate Judiciary Committee held a session where this nominee was questioned and apparently a number of reporters including this one, were live-tweeting it.

Their Committee's page is here - https://www.nysenate.gov/calendar/meetings/judiciary/january-18-2023/judiciary-meeting

but it doesn't appear they have the archived video of the hearing and questions up yet

The same Committee had a meeting yesterday with an archive on YouTube here (so this is what it would look like whenever they post it) -



The live-tweets are supposedly indicating what was said at the hearing in response to questioning so whatever "evidence" would be out of the horse's mouth whenever the video gets posted somewhere.

It happens daily with the individual you are in discussion with. It does not matter what sources you provide. They will not accept nor read them.

You noticed too...

All 10 who voted against the judge were Democrats; two Democrats voted in favor of Justice LaSalle, while one Democrat and all six Republicans voted in favor “without recommendation.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/nyregion/chief-judge-lasalle-hearing.html

I wonder if the DSA will gun for them next?

And folks will believe it because they heard it on TV. Interesting no one ever saw this article.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/the-railroading-of-kathy-hochuls-chief-judge-pick.html

The Railroading of Kathy Hochul’s Chief Judge Pick

I asked Andrea-Stewart-Cousins, the State Senate majority leader, why her members aren’t even pretending to give LaSalle a fair hearing. “The views of the conference were set long before Mr. LaSalle’s nomination came up, and I think people are just reiterating, frankly, what they said before,” she told me, referring to an August 30 letter in which senators called for a chief judge who had never worked as a prosecutor. As Stewart-Cousins put it, “They weren’t looking for another prosecutor, and they were looking for someone that was more in line with the values of the majority of the Senate.”

The August 30 letter includes the admonition, amusing under the circumstances, that “it is imperative that the next Chief Judge not be beholden to any of the state’s political power brokers.” The demand was addressed to the Commission on Judicial Nomination, a body expressly created to shield the selection process from meddling by political power brokers like state senators, union bosses, and self-appointed activists. The Commission, in keeping with the state constitution, forwarded seven names to Hochul, who was required to select one as her nominee and chose LaSalle.

People really ought to read this.

opinions and judgment?

one sees he made the right legal call.

I'm happy to be in the company of Hakeem Jeffries. Do you think he will be the DSA's next target?

Link to tweet

I can think of many actions by the Senate that I have disagreed with for the last decade. I had no idea they could be sued based on my not liking their vote. I would think a Democratic governor would know that's not how it works. She seems intent on having her way.

for a lawsuit might be.

Making bad decisions on the basic of smear campaigns isn't "actionable" to my knowledge.



ETA: further digging seems to suggest that Governor Hochul's position is that the NY State constitution requires that the full State Senate vote on such nominations. I don't know if that position has merit (or not).

Reportedly, she "could" try to sue to force a confirmation vote by the full NY Senate.

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2023/01/13/yes-justice-hector-lasalle-really-is-conservative/

When Gov. Kathy Hochul nominated Appellate Division, Second Department Presiding Justice Hector LaSalle to be the next chief judge of New York’s courts, 149 organizations sounded the alarm that LaSalle would ensure a continuation of previous Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s 4-3 conservative majority. Forty-six law professors were alarmed by his opinions on reproductive rights, unions, and criminal justice. Fourteen state senators publicly declared that they would oppose LaSalle’s nomination, casting his confirmation into question.

Since then, there has been a steady hum of op-eds and letters here in the Law Journal raising the possibility that perhaps LaSalle is not quite so bad. Perhaps all these voices were hasty—in fact, if you look closely at LaSalle’s record, does it really show such conservative tendencies? The answer is yes.

Despite the outcry that progressive groups “cherry-picked” cases, the coalition opposing LaSalle has cited a large number of disturbing cases. A recent analysis of his votes in criminal cases puts LaSalle in the most conservative 25% of Second Department justices. Another recent news analysis showed that he sided with the Court of Appeals’ conservative bloc in eight of his previous nine decisions.

In all his thousands of criminal cases, he has never once dissented on behalf of a criminal defendant. In a telling case, DiFiore personally vouched LaSalle onto the court so that he could break a tie in favor of that conservative majority. White v. Cuomo, 2022 NY Slip Op 01954; see also U.S. Bank N.A. v. DLJ Mtge. Capital, 2022 NY Slip Op 01866 (where DiFiore vouched in LaSalle, who voted with the conservative majority, but where his vote was not necessary to break a tie).

snip

The New York Law Journal, founded in 1888, is a legal periodical covering the legal profession in New York.

So the suit does have "merit". It is not a suit about "not liking their vote.". The suit is about the Judiciary Committee denying the judge a floor vote. The New York Constitution says the legislature shall vote to confirm or deny a nomination. It does not say the legislature means the Judiciary committee. In this case the Judiciary committee is denying the legislature the right to vote the judge up or down.

???

I honestly know next to nothing about this. I live in the Midwest and have not been following this even semi-closely. But the more I read about LaSalle, the more baffled I am that any Democratic governor would nominate him for such an important position.

I. Don't. Get. It.

Centrist disease?

LaSalle is the only Latino appellate judge so she’s boxed herself in