By Bob Hennelly

Labor opposition to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul's selection of Judge Hector LaSalle to become New York State’s top jurist continued to intensify over the Christmas holiday. With no signs of either side backing down, the controversy was poised to devolve into a bruising battle exposing the Democratic State Senate caucus along its ideological fault lines once it reconvenes early next month.

LaSalle is currently serving as the presiding justice of the New York Supreme Court’s Second Department and if confirmed by the state Senate, would be the state's first Latino to lead the state’s highest court. The highest profile irritant for labor was LaSalle’s voting with the majority in a 2015 ruling that permitted employers to sue union leaders for defamation after unions blasted Cablevision’s performance during Hurricane Sandy.

Prior to his years on the bench, he worked as prosecutor for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office heading that office’s anti-gang unit. Before that, he worked in the New York State Attorney General’s Medical Malpractice Claims Bureau.

“Several Latinx politicians denounced LaSalle even before he was nominated; others pledged to vote against his confirmation, including Senators Julia Salazar, Gustavo Rivera, and incoming Senator Kristen Gonzalez. Labor, led by 32BJ, the CWA, the UAW, and the Carpenters, called on the Senate to reject him,” reported Bloomberg Law.

“Justice Hector LaSalle has unfortunately shown a willingness to put the interests of corporations ahead of workers which is disturbing in a state with a long history of supporting workers’ rights,” tweeted New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento on Dec. 22.  

The state Senate has 30 days to confirm or reject LaSalle. It is back in session Jan. 4. New York state’s highest court is made up of a half dozen associate judges and a chief judge. They serve 14-year terms. A pool of prospective nominees gets evaluated for qualifications and temperament by an independent judicial panel, which generates a list of seven finalists from which the governor makes her selection.

In a Dec. 28 Daily News op-ed, Noah Rosenblum, an assistant law professor at New York University explained why he signed on to a letter opposing LaSalle’s elevation with 45 other law academics.  

“Several decisions he joined suggest his hostility to labor, reproductive rights, and due process,” wrote Rosenblum. “And according to a statistical analysis conducted by the new legal data startup Scrutinize, LaSalle is a conservative outlier on an already conservative court — among the 25 percent most conservative judges on the Second Department.”

Rosenblum continues.  “He is also a former prosecutor, when the court counts three former prosecutors already and not a single judge from a defense background. We are now in uncharted waters. No modern gubernatorial nominee to the court has been rejected by the state Senate. Then again, no nominee has ever aroused this level of opposition. Already, it seems that Hochul does not have sufficient Democratic votes to confirm him.”

NYS Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-33) told Common Dreams, "It is not hypothetical to say that New York's chief judge must defend workers' rights, bodily autonomy, voting rights, and so much else being attacked at the national level. The Supreme Court has already demonstrated that they will actively erode what we have fought so hard to secure. This is not the time to place a person at the head of our appeals court who could weaken the ability of our state to defend us from these national attacks.”

32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich released a statement saying Justice LaSalle’s “anti-union and anti-worker record makes him an unacceptable choice to be New York’s Chief Judge.”

"New York must be a bulwark against the extreme Supreme Court’s attacks on our basic rights — not an extension of them,” Pastreich said. “Unfortunately, Justice LaSalle’s record makes it clear that he would undermine the important progress New York has achieved in recent years to defend worker rights and gender equity. We strongly urge the Senate to reject this nomination.”

In making her selection, Gov. Hochul hailed her choice as “someone who is collegial and collaborative, who can bring the court together, as well as managing a very large court operation” that the governor conceded was “was shut down in many ways during the pandemic” and still suffered from “major backlogs.” 

At a Dec 23 press conference Hochul told reporters she rejected imposing any “political litmus test” on her court picks.

“If you actually read those cases that are in question, they have nothing to do with a woman’s right to choose,” she said. “And on the labor issue, it was a procedural decision to send it down for the trial courts,” Hochul insisted. “All these objections will be overcome when the senators look at it with an open mind and actually study the nature of those cases, so I’m standing with him. I’m proud of this selection and I encourage everyone to give him the fair hearing that he’s entitled to.”

Before starting his career in government service, he had a two-year stint working for Ruskin, Moscou, Faltischeck, a Long Island law firm. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993 and from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in political science in 1990.

The New York state court system is a $3 billion a year operation with more than 1,300 judges and 15,000 support personnel.