[Democrats likely to defeat Dem. Governor Hochul’s nomination of
Hector LaSalle to be the state’s next chief judge, after
progressives raised concern about his conservative judicial record and
anti-abortion, anti-labor and anti-bail reform positions. ]
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“UNACCEPTABLE”: NY PROGRESSIVES VOW TO STOP DEM. GOV’S
NOMINATION OF CONSERVATIVE JUDGE TO TOP COURT  
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Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Jabari Brisport
December 30, 2022
Democracy Now!
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_ Democrats likely to defeat Dem. Governor Hochul’s nomination of
Hector LaSalle to be the state’s next chief judge, after
progressives raised concern about his conservative judicial record and
anti-abortion, anti-labor and anti-bail reform positions. _

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Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to a remarkable development here in New York,
where for the first time Democrats look likely to defeat the
Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul’s nomination of the next chief
judge to the state’s highest court. If confirmed, Hector LaSalle
would be the first Latino chief judge of the Court of Appeals of New
York. But his conservative judicial record has been opposed by
progressives because of his anti-abortion, anti-labor and anti-bail
reform positions. On Thursday, two more state senators came forward to
oppose LaSalle’s nomination, bringing the total on record to 12,
meaning he cannot be approved without Republican support, which makes
it unlikely Democrats will bring his nomination to a vote. Those
opposed now include the Senate deputy leader, Democrat Mike Gianaris.

On Wednesday, _Democracy Now!_'s Juan González and I spoke to one of
the first state senators to oppose LaSalle's nomination, Jabari
Brisport, New York state senator in Brooklyn who’s a Democratic
Socialist. I asked him to describe how the governor chooses who to
nominate for a chief justice, and why he opposes LaSalle.

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: Well, good morning, Amy. Thank you for having
me. It’s always a pleasure to be here.

The process in New York works like this. There is a Commission on
Judicial Nominations. They take recommendations, applications over a
several-week period, whenever they have an opening. And then they make
a shortlist of seven that they give to the governor, who picks one to
send to the Senate for confirmation. So, in the shortlist of seven, I
would say there were three really outstanding candidates and three
unacceptable ones. One, that being Hector LaSalle, who is unacceptable
for the reasons you’ve listed previously, as making anti-labor
decisions, anti-abortion decisions, and, honestly, branding as not
even a conservative judge, but a conservative activist judge, going
out of his way to make these decisions.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you be a little more specific on some of
those decisions that he’s made that draw the ire and the concern of
progressive groups?

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: Yeah, sure. So, in his anti-abortion
decision, there was a crisis pregnancy center in New York City that
was misleading women seeking abortions and then went under
investigation for illegally practicing medicine. And during their
investigation, Hector LaSalle helped author a decision that shielded
them from the full investigation by the attorney general. He basically
made the case that they did not need to give or share what their
marketing materials were, the things they were using to dupe women. He
said that sharing those marketing materials would be a violation of
their First Amendment rights somehow.

In terms of anti-labor decisions, there was a case where an employer,
Cablevision, was suing union leaders. And even though that’s illegal
in New York, Hector LaSalle went out of his way to say that even if
the employer could not sue them as union leaders, he could sue them as
individuals, basically exploding and rolling out the red carpet to a
loophole to sue labor leaders. And that’s why five labor unions have
also come out against Hector LaSalle, in addition to the 10 senators
who have, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, in terms of his confirmation process, Democrats
have an overwhelming majority in the state Senate. What would it take
to block his confirmation?

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: He would need 32 yes votes to be confirmed by
the state Senate. So, currently, there are 10 of the 42 Democratic
senators who have come out opposing him. If one single more is
opposing him, then he will not have enough votes from the Democratic
conference to be confirmed.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what’s going to happen now? And talk about — I
mean, you know, it was a very close race between Lee Zeldin and
Governor Hochul. One of their main differences was reproductive
rights, was the issue of abortion. And, you know, he was fiercely
anti-abortion, and she said she was extremely pro-choice. Can you talk
about what that means when a chief justice has the position that he
has, what kind of cases he presides over? And did this nomination
surprise you?

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: This nomination was baffling to me, that the
governor would attempt to cement a conservative majority on our
highest court up until 2030 with a judge who has a record of making
anti-abortion decisions. And again, he has gone out of his way. When
you have someone willfully misinterpreting the Constitution to the
point where they’re saying an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center
does not need to share what, you know, lying, deceitful marketing
materials they’re using, that’s a problem for me. And we have a
situation here in New York where we have an opportunity to shift the
highest court in a progressive direction, and the governor is
completely fumbling that opportunity.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about bail reform, state Senator Brisport?

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: Yes. In 2019, New York state enacted changes
to the bail laws that allowed for more — less restrictive measures
to allow more people to wait at home for their trial rather than
waiting at our detention facility in New York City called Rikers in
pretrial detention. And it was a strong success in terms of more
equality of people staying at home and waiting home for their fair
trial. But due to conservative backlash and blaming everything under
the sun on the laws, it suffered rollbacks immediately after in 2020
and again this year, in 2022. And conservatives continue to weaponize
it and lie about the facts of bail reform in order to get rollbacks
and force more people to be incarcerated.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what is your sense of why Governor Hochul took
this decision, what kind of pressure she was under? After all, if she
wanted to name the first Latino to chief justice, she could have named
Jenny Rivera, who came out of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and
Education Fund and is already on the court, but she chose instead this
far more conservative pick.

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: Yeah, I would say two things, Juan. One is
just the outspoken identity politics angle of confirming the first
Latino. In terms of Jenny Rivera, she is fantastic; however, she was
not on the seven-person shortlist provided by the Commission on
Judicial Nominations, so she was not an option for the governor to
choose.

And, you know, the unspoken one, aside from the identity politics, is
that the governor consistently shies away from making bold progressive
decisions. That’s also why she did so poorly against an
election-denying, Trump-supported fascist running against her for the
governorship just a few weeks ago, is that she refused to make — to
distinguish herself with a strong progressive tack.

AMY GOODMAN: Hector LaSalle was a prosecutor in Suffolk County, New
York. You tweeted, “It’s indefensible to ask for Black votes and
then work to incarcerate us. No on LaSalle,” you said. Explain.

SEN. JABARI BRISPORT: There are zero judges with a defense
background on the court. And that was a problem when we voted to
confirm Madeline Singas over a year ago. I voted no on her. I voted no
again on Troutman earlier this year. And we have an extremely lopsided
fact that the Court of Appeals is dominated by prosecutors and people
that issue, you know, pro-landlord decisions and pro-business
decisions. And nominating yet another prosecutor to our highest court
would maintain that imbalance.

AMY GOODMAN: Jabari Brisport, New York state senator in Brooklyn, a
Democratic Socialist. We spoke to him Wednesday, before more Democrats
said they would vote against the confirmation of Hector LaSalle,
reaching 12, meaning he can’t be approved without Republican
support, which makes it unlikely Democrats will bring his nomination
to a vote, challenging the choice of the Democratic governor of New
York, Kathy Hochul.

_DEMOCRACY NOW! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted
by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Our
reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth
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* New York
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* State Supreme Court
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* Kathy Hochul
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* abortion
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* Labor
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* bail
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* democratic socialists
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