Several months after Janet DiFiore suddenly stepped down from her post as the chief judge of New York’s top court, Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday nominated Hector LaSalle, the presiding justice of the state Supreme Court’s Second Department, as her replacement.
Not long after, the decision recieved pushback from criminal justice advocates and some lawmakers, claiming the judge is too conservative for their standards.
If LaSalle is confirmed by the state Senate, he would lead the New York State Court of Appeals and preside over the state’s entire judiciary. Hochul also announced she’s backing LaSalle’s intention to appoint Edwina Richardson-Mendelson as the next chief administrative judge as a replacement for Lawrence Marks, who resigned from his post last month.
Hochul, in a statement, heaped praise on LaSalle, saying he has the “skills, experience and intellect” to make the Court of Appeals the leading high court in the country.
“Judge LaSalle has a sterling reputation as a consensus-builder, and I know he can unite the court in service of justice,” Hochul said. “He has effectively led the largest state appellate court in the country, and in partnership with Judge Richardson-Mendelson, I know he will be focused on expanding access to justice for New Yorkers. Our state courts are more important now than ever when it comes to protecting our rights and upholding New York values, and I know that Judge LaSalle will lead the court in doing just that.”
In his own statement, LaSalle thanked Hochul for her nomination and reiterated his aim to appoint Richardson-Mendelson as the state’s next chief administrative judge.
“I am humbled by Governor Hochul’s nomination, and I thank her for this tremendous honor. I am committed to leading the Court with integrity and fairness, upholding justice, and protecting the rights of New Yorkers,” LaSalle said.
LaSalle, who would be the first Latino chief judge of the state’s top court as the son of Puerto Rican parents, has served as the head of the state Supreme Court’s Second Department – a mid-level appeals court that covers parts of the city and its suburbs – since 2021. He was appointed to that role in 2014 following his election as a state Supreme Court Justice in 2008. Prior to that, he was an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for several years.
Richardson-Mendelson, meanwhile, has been the New York Unified Court System’s Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Justice Initiatives since 2017 and is a Court of Claims judge. She also leads the Equal Justice in Courts Initiative to implement recommendations for diversifying the state court system in terms of race and gender.
Richardson-Mendelson was one of the seven judges Hochul was considering to replace DiFiore.
DiFiore suddenly stepped down from her role as the state’s top judge at the end of August after serving in the role since 2016, when former Governor Andrew Cuomo nominated her to the post.
The governor’s pick of LaSalle, however, has already gotten criticized by some criminal justice advocacy groups and left-leaning state senators for having what they characterized as a conservative judicial record.
Peter Martin, director of judicial accountability at the Center for Community Alternatives, issued a statement condemning LaSalle’s judicial record as “anti-abortion, anti-union, and anti-due process.”
“His decisions make clear that his judicial philosophy is wrong for New York, and that, if confirmed as Chief Judge, he would be a continuation of former Chief Judge DiFiore’s right-wing Court of Appeals,” Martin said. ”We call on the Senate to reject Justice LaSalle’s nomination and demand a Chief Judge nominee who will protect the rights of workers, tenants, women, incarcerated people, and all New Yorkers.”
State Senator Julia Salazar and state Senator-elect Kristen Gonzalez, who are both Democratic Socialists, each took to Twitter shortly after Hochul announced LaSalle’s nomination Thursday morning to indicate they’d vote against seating him.
“Deeply disappointed in the Governor’s nomination of someone with a clear anti-union, fundamentally conservative record on the bench to be chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals,” Salazar wrote on Twitter. “I’m a hard no on Justice LaSalle’s nomination.”
