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Hector LaSalle
Presiding Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department
Incumbent
Assumed office
2021
Appointed byAndrew Cuomo
Preceded byWilliam F. Mastro (acting)
Personal details
Born
Hector Daniel LaSalle

1967 or 1968 (age 56–57)
Brentwood, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic[1]
EducationPennsylvania State University (BA)
University of Michigan (JD)

Hector Daniel LaSalle[2] (born 1967/1968)[3] is an American lawyer and jurist who is the presiding judge of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department. He was unsuccessfully nominated by Governor Kathy Hochul to serve as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.[4][5]

LaSalle's nomination drew opposition from a wide variety of Democratic groups and constituencies, including numerous unions and trade groups, criminal justice advocates, elected officeholders, and local party affiliates, who raised concerns about his track record on issues relating to abortion, criminal justice, corporate interests, and the environment.

In January 2023, the state senate's Judiciary Committee narrowly voted to reject the nomination. However, Hochul threatened to sue the senate to force a full vote on the nomination. On February 15, the full Senate overwhelmingly voted 39-20 to reject LaSalle's nomination. Hochul acknowledged the result, only after attempting to sue the New York Senate,[6] and eventually nominated Rowan Wilson.

Early life and education

Born in Brentwood on Long Island, LaSalle graduated from Brentwood High School.[7] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1990 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993.[8]

Career

LaSalle served as an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney's office from 1993 to 1998 and as deputy bureau chief of the office's Special Investigation Bureau from 2002 to 2008. LaSalle also worked as an associate at Ruskin Moscou Faltishek, P.C. and served as a deputy attorney general in the New York Attorney General's Office, Claims Bureau (Medical Malpractice Section).[9] In 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo nominated LaSalle to serve as the presiding judge of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.[10]

Nomination as chief judge of the court of appeals

In 2022, LaSalle's name was on a list of seven candidates to replace Janet DiFiore as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals the state's highest judicial position, from a list of candidates, all of whom had applied for the job, chosen by the state's Commission on Judicial Nominations (CJN).[11] Late that December, Governor Kathy Hochul nominated LaSalle. Had he been confirmed, he would've been the state's first Latino chief judge.[12]

LaSalle's nomination faced substantial opposition from more than a dozen Democratic members of the state senate,[13] labor unions,[14] civil rights groups,[15] the Manhattan Democratic Party,[16] and other Democratic-aligned advocacy groups and organizations, who have criticized LaSalle's record on abortion, labor, and criminal justice cases.[17][18] Others also objected to his background as a prosecutor, arguing that the higher courts needed a defense lawyer's perspective to balance out the many former prosecutors on those benches. They also recalled that during her recent gubernatorial campaign, Hochul had promised to appoint a strongly liberal and progressive judge to DiFiore's position, in order to reverse what they saw as a conservative drift in a court that had a historical reputation for bold decisions that had advanced liberal causes, especially at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court had become more conservative.[19]

LaSalle's defenders, primarily older Latino Democratic officeholders such as Senator Luis R. Sepúlveda, argued that he was being held to an impossibly high standard because of his ethnicity, even while younger Latino leaders were among LaSalle's fiercest opponents.[20] They also argued that his critics had distorted and misrepresented decisions he had joined to make him appear more conservative than he actually was. Some of the state's major unions, such as the Public Employees Federation, which represents white-collar workers in state government, and the city's Transit Workers Union, criticized their fellow unions' opposition and, without endorsing LaSalle, called for him to receive a full Senate vote.[21]

Both sides accused the other of manipulating the process. LaSalle's opponents noted that three other sitting judges on the Court—Rowan Wilson, Shirley Troutman and Jenny Rivera—were also reportedly among the 41 people who applied to the CJN for consideration, but did not make the final list. They noted that those three had frequently dissented in some of the narrowly-decided rulings of the DiFiore Court lamented by liberals, particularly Harkenrider v. Hochul, the 2022 case that invalidated a congressional redistricting map drawn by the legislature after the state's independent redistricting commission had failed to agree on one and assigned the task to a special master. Many Democrats blamed those maps for allowing Republicans enough competitive seats to retake a slight majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.[22]

Four of the 12 members of the CJN are appointed by the Chief Judge; three of the current four were DiFiore appointees. An additional five were appointed by either former governor Andrew Cuomo, who had appointed and strongly supported DiFiore, or Republican legislative leaders. That created a nine-member bloc that might have prevented Rivera, Troutman or Wilson from gaining the necessary seven votes to advance while allowing the more conservative Anthony Cannataro, the only other sitting judge on the Court who applied, to advance.[22] Opponents cited reports that DiFiore's three appointees had, in fact, actively worked to prevent the three liberal judges from reaching the shortlist.[19][a]

In January 2023, as the legislature reconvened for its new session, Democratic leadership in the state senate expanded the membership of the Judiciary Committee from 15 to 19. The move was described as routine housekeeping, but LaSalle's supporters noted that some of the Democrats newly assigned to the committee, like Jessica Ramos, had already declared their opposition to LaSalle.[21] They have called the new committee "stacked".[23]

Committee vote

The state constitution requires the state senate to act on the nomination within 30 days. On January 18, after a five-hour hearing, the senate's Judiciary Committee voted 10–9 against advancing his nomination to the floor,[24] the first time since New York began filling Court of Appeals vacancies through gubernatorial appointments rather than elections that lawmakers have rejected a nominee. Hochul has suggested she may file suit to force a full Senate vote on LaSalle, arguing that the state constitution requires it.[25]

Committee chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal spoke about his vote against LaSalle with New York afterwards. "I think he most certainly demonstrated that he is a decent individual who pursues public service for the right reasons and has a moving personal story, as well as potentially the historic role of him being the first Latino chief judge", he said. "But at the end of the day, I don't think he sufficiently answered my colleagues' questions about some troubling decisions."[26]

One of those decisions, People v. Bridgeforth,[27] Hoylman-Sigal, like many progressives, found particularly troubling. LaSalle had joined a short unanimous opinion that held a black defendant was not prejudiced by the court granting the prosecutor's peremptory challenge striking all dark-skinned jurors from the pool regardless of race, a decision ultimately reversed by the Court of Appeals on the grounds that the state constitution specifically bars discrimination on the basis of color as well as race.[28] LaSalle and his defenders had said the Appellate Division was bound by precedent, but Hoylman-Sigal had noted that the opinion had not specifically identified the precedent in question, which LaSalle admitted it should have.[26]

Hoylman-Sigal noted that LaSalle had joined 5,700 decisions as an appellate judge and personally authored six decisions. Two of LaSalle's cases were reversed by the Court of Appeals. Hoylman-Sigal noted also that LaSalle had left certain portions of his application for the position incomplete. Lastly, he believed that the backlash LaSalle had provoked made him unlikely to be able to unite a fractious court whose members were openly attacking each other in opinions.[26]

On February 15, the full Senate voted 39–20 to reject LaSalle. All Democrats present voted against the nomination except Monica Martinez, likewise all Republicans except Mario Mattera were in support. Four senators, including Sepulveda, were absent. Hochul accepted the result and promised to nominate another candidate soon,[29] but only after threatening to sue the New York Senate.[30]

Notes

  1. ^ This is not the first time the CJN has been accused of purposely frustrating a governor's stated intent to appoint a particular category of judge or justice. When former governor Mario Cuomo, who had promised during his campaigns that he would appoint a woman as chief judge, had the opportunity during the early 1980s to appoint a new chief judge, the commission returned a list of exclusively male candidates.[22]

References

  1. ^ https://www.nysfocus.com/2022/12/22/chief-judge-court-of-appeals-hochul-picks-hector-lasalle/
  2. ^ "Hector Daniel Lasalle · Appellate Division, Second Dept". opengovny.com. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  3. ^ Davis O’Brien, Rebecca (December 22, 2022). "Hochul Taps First Latino Judge to Head New York's Top Court". The New York Times. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  4. ^ Campbell, Jon (December 22, 2022). "Hector LaSalle nominated to become New York's chief judge". Gothamist. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  5. ^ "Hector LaSalle, former Suffolk prosecutor, nominated for New York chief judge". Newsday. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  6. ^ https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/01/can-kathy-hochul-really-sue-ny-senate-over-hector-lasalle/382040/
  7. ^ "'He Rose Like a Rocket': When It Comes to the State's Highest Court, LaSalle Has Been There, Done That". New York Law Journal. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  8. ^ "Governor Hochul Nominates Hon. Hector D. Lasalle to be Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals". www.governor.ny.gov. December 22, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  9. ^ "Appellate Division - Second Judicial Department". www.nycourts.gov. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  10. ^ Brandon (August 5, 2021). "Meet the New Presiding Justice: Hector LaSalle". New York State Bar Association. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  11. ^ "The Commission on Judicial Nomination Releases List of Seven Nominees In Connection with Chief Judge Vacancy" (PDF) (Press release). New York State Commission on Judicial Nominations. November 23, 2022. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  12. ^ O'Brien, Rebecca Davis (December 22, 2022). "Hochul Taps First Latino Judge to Head New York's Top Court". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  13. ^ "Gov. Kathy Hochul pledges to stand by chief judge nominee Hector LaSalle as he faces criticism". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  14. ^ "'No to LaSalle': Union leaders join pushback on chief judge nominee". spectrumlocalnews.com. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  15. ^ "LDF Opposes Justice Hector LaSalle's Elevation to New York's Highest Court". Legal Defense Fund. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  16. ^ "Manhattan Democratic Party Statement on Governor's Nomination of Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals – Manhattan Democratic Party". Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  17. ^ Mellins, Sam (December 22, 2022). "Hochul Taps Hector LaSalle to Lead Court of Appeals Against Progressive Outcry". New York Focus. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  18. ^ "'Progressives Definitely Did Not Want Him': Mixed Reactions to LaSalle as Chief Judge". New York Law Journal. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  19. ^ a b Rosenblum, Noah (December 28, 2022). "Hector LaSalle is the wrong chief judge". New York Daily News. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  20. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; McKinley, Jesse (January 18, 2023). "Inside the Political Fight That May Have Doomed a Chief Judge Nominee". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  21. ^ a b Louis, Errol (January 12, 2023). "The Railroading of Kathy Hochul's Chief Judge Pick". New York. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  22. ^ a b c Mellins, Sam (December 1, 2022). "Chief Judge Shortlist Excluded Court's Sitting Liberals, DiFiore Opponents". New York Focus. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  23. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; McKinley, Jesse; O'Brien, Rebecca (January 11, 2023). "Why Left-Leaning Democrats May Torpedo Hochul's Choice of Top Judge". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  24. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; McKinley, Jesse (January 18, 2023). "LaSalle Is Rejected by New York Senate Panel in a 10-9 Vote". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
  25. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis; McKinley, Jesse (January 18, 2023). "LaSalle Is Rejected by New York Senate Panel in a 10-9 Vote". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  26. ^ a b c Hoylman-Sig, Brad (January 20, 2023). "'The Last Thing We Need Is a Constitutional Crisis'". New York (Interview). Interviewed by Nia Prater. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  27. ^ People v. Bridgeforth, 2014 NY Slip Op 4955 (N.Y.S.A.D.2d 2014).
  28. ^ People v. Bridgeforth, 28 N.Y.3d 567 (N.Y. 2016).
  29. ^ Ferré-Sadurní, Luis (February 15, 2023). "State Senate Rejects Nominee for Chief Judge in Defeat for Hochul". The New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  30. ^ https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2023/01/23/hochul-still-mulling-lawsuit-over-chief-judge-nomination
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