4 months ago
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul saw a remarkable defeat Wednesday in her ongoing judicial nomination self-own. Hochul’s nomination of Hector LaSalle, a conservative appeals court judge, to the state’s highest court, was voted down in the state Senate's Judiciary Committee.
Ten Democrats opposed sending LaSalle’s nomination to the full Senate, while two Democrats voted in favor of LaSalle and one Democrat and all six Republicans on the committee voted to advance LaSalle’s nomination for a vote, but “without recommendation.”
This may not be the end of the LaSalle saga, though. Hochul has threatened legal action to force a vote of the full Senate on his nomination. If she gets her way, she’d be relying on Republican votes to confirm her pick for chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals. But why is Hochul trying to force through the nomination of a conservative judge over the opposition of progressive Democrats, labor unions, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and reproductive rights advocates, among other groups whose opinions you would expect a Democratic governor to respect?
RELATED STORY: Why does a Democratic governor want a conservative judge to lead her state's highest court?
