ALBANY – State Senate Democrats announced Monday that they will hold a confirmation hearing on Monday to consider the nomination of liberal Court of Appeals Associate Judge Rowan Wilson to become chief judge of New York’s highest court.
“This may be the most important nomination of the Governor’s term,” state Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) said Monday when Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her pick.
“Judge Wilson has a distinguished record in both the public and private sectors and I look forward to working with my colleagues in reviewing his record closely.”
Hochul announced her previous pick to lead the state’s top court, centrist appellate judge Hector LaSalle, on Dec. 22 but he had to wait until Jan. 19 for a hearing by the State Senate Judiciary Committee, which ultimately voted against his nomination.
Progressives and organized labor groups opposed LaSalle largely based on a handful of rulings they said showed he was too right-leaning to lead the seven-member court previously dominated by a conservative bloc under ex-Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who resigned amid scandal last summer.
State Senate Democrats ultimately sank LaSalle’s nomination in a Feb. 15 floor vote following a nearly one-month stand-off against Hochul over whether the Judiciary Committee had the authority to block a judicial nomination by itself.
Wilson by comparison appears to have a much smoother path to getting confirmed, including a relatively fast timeline for getting a hearing, with key progressives like state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) praising the pick.
Some of the delay for LaSalle in getting a hearing had to do with the political calendar.
Hochul nominated him in December before a newly-elected Legislature would first convene on Jan. 4 –though Albany lawmakers somehow did return to the Capitol at the end of the year to give themselves a $32,000 pay bump, effective in 2023, that made them the highest-paid state lawmakers in the country.
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The Judiciary Committee had its first 2023 meeting in the second week of the legislative session, with a hearing happening the following week.
Hoylman-Sigal said Thursday that moving on Wilson’s nomination a week after Hochul unveiled his nomination also makes sense given impending issues before the Court of Appeals, which could hear a case challenging state congressional lines that could determine control of the U.S. House in the 2024 cycle.
“There’s a greater sense of urgency given the vacancy of the Chief Judge position for many months, important decisions coming to New York’s highest court, and the backlog of cases across the system. The courts have been starved of leadership for too long,” Hoylman-Sigal said Thursday.
State senators also plan on holding a hearing on Tuesday for liberal attorney Caitlin Halligan, who Hochul named to replace Wilson if he gets confirmed.
That could spark another legal battle that might end up before the Court of Appeals down the line.
A state Court on Judicial Nomination is tasked with screening candidates for the court, with Rowan and Halligan included on a seven-name list sent to Hochul weeks ago.
Albany Democrats eventually passed a bill that allows Hochul to select Halligan as a replacement without waiting for the commission to make a new list, a process that takes weeks.
State Senate Republicans have yet to say whether they will challenge the new law in court, according to Albany Times Union.
