Letter to the Editor: Rolison says Dems embarrass Latino chief justice candidate

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Dear Editor:

Nobody likes the old switcheroo pulled on them. But that’s exactly what New Yorkers got last week inside the Capitol. In one of the most brazen displays of political gamesmanship on record – saying something in Albany – Senate Democrats called a sudden vote to shoot down Hector LaSalle, Governor Hochul’s pick for the state’s top judge on the Court of Appeals. I don’t agree with every ruling from Presiding Justice LaSalle; after all, healthy debate is at the heart of my job as a state senator representing the people of the Hudson Valley’s 39th District. But it is unconscionable that it took more than a month, and only after Senate Republicans filed a lawsuit, to force LaSalle’s nomination to an up-or-down vote before the entire Senate. How Democrats torpedoed the nomination of what would have been New York’s first Latino chief justice is a microcosm of the dysfunction and hypocrisy which define events in the state capital.

At least one Democrat who voted down Justice LaSalle’s nomination on February 15 called it a “distraction.” What a strange way to describe the rendering of a statutory duty. Under New York’s constitution, the Senate is expected to provide its “advice and consent” to the governor’s judicial nominees, voting to confirm or oppose them. Notice I write “the Senate” rather “senators” or “Senate committee” – because that’s what our constitution requires. Yet there were Democrats openly arguing that they had discharged their duties after the upper chamber’s Judiciary Committee took its one and only LaSalle-related action in January, opposing his nomination by a single vote, 10-9. Conveniently, the two Democratic members on the committee who supported Governor Hochul’s pick were out of town last week, and that’s when leadership decided to hold its second vote – after considerable pressure and delaying tactics – to kill the nomination. A “distraction” to follow the state constitution you took an oath to uphold? If this founding document is regarded as a distraction on the question of our state’s highest court and its proper functions, then there is no issue on which the necessities of power will seek to circumvent the rule of law. This is a slippery slope that should frighten all of us.

Latinos represent the largest minority group in the mid-Hudson region. They are friends and neighbors, business owners and entrepreneurs, cops and firefighters, homemakers and civic leaders. I got to know many Latino families, particularly the Oaxacan Mexican community, during my seven years as mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie. For our state’s first Latino nominee to New York’s highest court to be treated like Justice LaSalle is a step backwards. Senate Democrats use lofty-sounding rhetoric underlining their supposed support for “diversity” and “inclusion,” but the numbers, as they say, never lie. Latinos account for just 10% of New York’s judges despite making up 20% of its population in the most recent Census.

At the time I voted to confirm him, I called Presiding Justice LaSalle a highly qualified nominee who deserved timely consideration under our state’s constitution. I continue to regard this as a reasonable, commonsense position shared by most New Yorkers and those who still treat fairness as a virtue. I’m disappointed more of my Senate Democratic colleagues didn’t join me. Instead what the people of our great state got was another spectacle of Albany playing politics with the legislative process. Last week 39 members voting inside the Capitol further damaged its image with a public rapidly losing faith in their state government. New Yorkers, including our Latino New Yorkers, deserve better.

Sincerely,

Rob Rolison
New York State Senator – District 39
Poughkeepsie, NY

The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Mid-Hudson News.




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