Hochul Judge Nominee Hector LaSalle Rejected (Again)

Dan Clark: It was a busy week in Albany where hearings on Governor Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion budget plan continued, but that was not the big news of the week. Things blew up on Wednesday over Governor Hochul’s nominee for chief judge. You'll remember that a few weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected that nominee, Hector LaSalle. A presiding justice of one of the state's four appellate courts.

The situation changed last week when the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Anthony Palumbo, sued Democrats over their rejection of LaSalle. He's arguing that even though a majority of the Judiciary Committee voted against him, the state constitution still requires a full vote from the full Senate. Then on Wednesday, Senate Democrats announced a surprise floor vote on LaSalle’s nomination just a few hours before it happened.

He was voted down 39 to 20. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said they wanted to end the fight before budget talks ramp up.

Andrea Stewart-Cousins: We are two weeks shorter in time than we would normally have, and we have a lot of work ahead of us. It's really a distraction that’s kind of hanging out there. So, it just seemed this was the appropriate time, since we really do need to focus on making sure we do New Yorkers work with our full attention.

DC: Justice LaSalle, who was in the Senate gallery for the vote, didn't take questions.

Republicans weren't buying that this was about the budget. They argue that Democrats were trying to kill their lawsuit before it moved forward by putting the whole LaSalle situation to bed. While Democrats did not say that, it is a possible outcome of the vote. That will be up to the judge in the case to decide.

Senator Palumbo said he plans to continue the litigation if it's not thrown out.

Anthony Palumbo: However, there are exceptions to mootness and particularly the rare nature of such an issue that it's not likely to be decided, it's not a common situation, is one of those factors. I won’t get too far into the weeds, but we kind of thought something like this might happen along the way. So, we're prepared for it, and we're ready to go forward.