Will Democrats stand tall against this conservative judge?
And possibly worst use of an MLK quote ever
Welcome to a Wednesday morning edition of Progress Report.
This is a special edition of the newsletter, coming to you ahead of a critical hearing scheduled for 10 am EST in Albany this morning.
Call me a biased New Yorker, but I promise, this is a very important event.
Democrats in the legislature spent nearly a month warning Gov. Kathy Hochul that she would be better off calling a mulligan and choosing someone else to nominate to be chief judge of the state’s highest court. Instead, Hochul spent this past week defending her nominee with divisive speeches and public faux pas, and so it’ll be conservative lower court judge Hector LaSalle answering tough questions from members of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee this morning.
Though technically a confirmation hearing, the Wednesday event is more likely to result in further acrimony than a committee vote to send LaSalle’s nomination to the full Senate. The Judiciary Committee has been expanded to include more progressive members, many of whom were quick to come out against LaSalle’s nomination when it was announced in late December, and enough moderate Democrats have since voiced opposition that votes will have to flip for Hochul’s choice to have any chance of passing.
"We have a four-judge block on that court that has been taking it to the right, ruling against tenants, against workers, creating all sorts of decisions that are counter to what New Yorkers would prefer," Michael Gianaris, the Deputy Majority Leader, recently said of the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s top court, in explaining why he opposed LaSalle.
The LaSalle saga is a crucial fight on its own terms, as well as a proxy battle in the struggle for control over of the Democratic Party both here in New York and nationwide. Will Democrats really approve a chief judge who has regularly sided with corporations against workers and consumers, condoned racist prosecutors, protected cops who failed their basic duties, and shielded anti-abortion centers?
I lay out the details in this video, which I’d love for you to check out:
There have already been 14 Democrats to come out against the nomination, and the State Senate Majority Leader has said there’s no path for this guy’s confirmation, but Hochul persists on doing her best Andrew Cuomo impression.Â
She held a rally for LaSalle in the Bronx over the weekend, where Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on the legislators to allow LaSalle’s nomination to sail through with avid Republican support. It’d be odd for him to get involved in any circumstances, but it’s particularly galling here.Â
The previous chief judge of the appellate court, also a conservative, was responsible for ordering a conservative-drawn Congressional redistricting map that was so awful that Jeffries himself compared it to a Jim Crow gerrymander. It ultimately cost Democrats four Congressional seats, which gave Republicans their majority. Jeffries has always been a two-faced corporate Democrat, but going to the mat for the conservatives that denied him a turn at being Speaker of the House? That’s next level.Â
Not exactly a retail politician, Hochul spent the past few days embarrassing herself and offending the Black community as she pushed her nominee. She told a Black church on Sunday that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have given LaSalle a chance.
"Dr. King called upon us to be just and to be fair, and to not judge people. And that has not been afforded to an individual named judge Hector LaSalle," Hochul actually said, setting off cringe alarms across the state. Possibly worse, her security removed an Afro-Latina woman who voiced her disapproval of LaSalle’s nomination.
Meanwhile, she’s received help from more conservative Democrats and Cuomo’s favorite lobbying and consulting firm, which used its Delaware-based PAC to create an astroturf group called Latinos for LaSalle. He’s got some support, including from Lin Manuel-Miranda’s dad (he’s involved in local politics), but there simply is no groundswell for this inexplicable nominee.
New York’s Democratic Party has long been a front for business-bought conservatives. Andrew Cuomo worked hard to keep it that way for many years, and it was only in 2018, when progressives ousted turncoat members who allied with Republicans, that the the conservative grip on the party started to loosen.
While much has changed since, the party is still chaired by Jay Jacobs, a Cuomo ally and obnoxious and condescending corporate goon who continues to enjoy Hochul’s support even after Democrats’ disastrous November election. It’s easy to see why, as Hochul is trying to bully legislators into confirming LaSalle, even if it requires a court order to get the judge in front of the larger state Senate and the Republicans who could put him over the top.
Buckle up, because it’s going to get nasty in a way that only New York politics can. The future of the Democratic Party is on the line.
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