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State Senator Anthony Palumbo, who represents a Long Island
district, said in a complaint filed in state court that New York's
constitution requires the full 63-member Senate to vote on whether
to confirm appellate judge Hector LaSalle to the post.
The Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-9 last month to
reject the nomination of LaSalle after unions and liberal advocacy
groups claimed that his record is too conservative.
Palumbo in the lawsuit said the state constitution, which requires
the governor to appoint a chief judge "with the advice and consent
of the Senate," was designed to prevent such an outcome. LaSalle is
the first nominee for chief judge to be rejected by the Senate
committee.
Allowing the committee to block a nominee "would insulate individual
senators from any public scrutiny that a full floor vote provides,
reducing the process to a small number of senators controlling the
outcome," Palumbo's lawyers wrote.
A spokesman for the Senate's Democratic majority did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Palumbo sued the Senate, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and
the senators who voted against LaSalle.
At last month's confirmation hearing, Judiciary Committee members
peppered LaSalle with pointed questions about his decisions that
they said show bias toward prosecutors, employers and an
anti-abortion group.
LaSalle said his critics had mischaracterized his record and that he
supports abortion access, workers' rights to unionize and the
constitutional rights of criminal defendants.
New York's chief judge heads the seven-member Court of Appeals,
which has the final say in interpreting state laws, and oversees the
state's massive court system.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Bill
Berkrot)
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