(C) Common Dreams
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Inside the Political Fight That May Have Doomed a Chief Judge Nominee [1]
['Jesse Mckinley', 'Luis Ferré-Sadurní']
Date: 2023-01-18
Indeed, moments after the vote not to send Mr. LaSalle’s nomination to a floor vote, the Working Families Party — which is positioned to the left of mainstream Democrats and opposed Mr. LaSalle — sent out a triumphant message, as did several other progressive-aligned groups.
“With a far-right U.S. Supreme Court, and a New York Court of Appeals captured by conservative and corporate interests, New York’s next chief judge must be ready to stand up for the rights and dignity of all New Yorkers,” Sharon Cromwell, deputy director of the party, said in a statement. “Governor Hochul should return with a new judicial nominee.”
That same progressive wing also took credit for salvaging Ms. Hochul’s flagging campaign for a full term in November, after the governor found herself in an unexpectedly tight battle with Republican Lee Zeldin, the conservative congressman from Long Island.
At the same time, the opposition also comes from a hunger on the part of many progressives and moderates to push the court back to the left after the tenure of the previous chief judge, Janet DiFiore, an Andrew Cuomo nominee, who many saw as too conservative.
That opinion was codified last year, when a 4-to-3 bloc led by Judge DiFiore rejected a new map for the state’s congressional districts, a decision that many Democrats felt paved the way for a raft of Republican wins in Congress in November.
The fight over Mr. LaSalle also opened new fault lines among some of the state and New York City’s most powerful Democratic constituencies, including labor, the left and Latinos.
Opposition to Mr. LaSalle has bound together some left-wing and more moderate, but still pro-union members, of the Legislature. But union opposition to the nomination has not been monolithic, with major labor groups like the Transport Workers Union criticizing fellow union groups for their tactics.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/nyregion/lasalle-politics-democrats-hochul.html
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