New York's top court is now a political pawn

In her misguided efforts to get a nominee for chief judge confirmed, Gov. Kathy Hochul is undermining the independence of the New York State judiciary and the long-established process of appointing judges to the Court of Appeals. Disappointingly, the lesson Hochul, a Democrat, learned from the rejection of her first nominee is that she must appease the far left of her party. 

Hochul's new choice is the well-credentialed Rowan Wilson, an associate judge best known for dissents that are consistently anti-prosecution and his embrace of all civil rights plaintiffs. One 70-page dissent, the longest in the court's history, argued that an elephant in the Bronx Zoo should have constitutional rights. The other part of this package deal with the State Senate is filling the expected associate judge opening with Caitlin Halligan, whose extensive legal career in government and private practice along with administrative experience actually make her the better choice to head the court.

But Hochul feared Halligan would trigger a second rejection from a Senate that wants a more radical choice that better fits its liberal narrative that the court is too conservative. That story emerged after the top court rejected the Democrats' outrageously gerrymandered election district maps. So to get Halligan, whom only the progressive left would consider too moderate, the governor hastily changed the law on the selection process so she could broker a deal, one that required her to concede the chief judge pick. 

Think about this: Halligan had been nominated twice by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, a Supreme Court pipeline, but her confirmation was halted by Republican senators who thought her too liberal.

To avoid the appearance of hypocrisy, State Senate Democrats should give Wilson the same deep scrutiny they imposed on Hector LaSalle. One case to examine would be People v. Regan for which Wilson wrote the majority opinion last month overturning a jury's first-degree rape conviction because the prosecutors took too long to obtain the defendant's DNA sample. But in 2006, the State Legislature repealed a five-year statute of limitations on rape to acknowledge its gravity and devastating impact on its victims, mostly women.

Most importantly, the Senate Judiciary Committee should ask the nominees about their views on upholding precedent, the theory that the court should honor previous rulings. Wilson dissented in the 2022 Harkenrider case that allowed, in a 4-3 ruling, a special master to draw fairer House of Representatives election district maps, one reason the GOP took control of the House. Now the national Democratic Party is advancing a case to reopen Harkenrider, one that gathered steam after the State Senate rejected LaSalle. Their goal is to have the maps redrawn for 2024. The dots may be connected soon.

If Hochul made this deal to achieve her goal of tightening bail laws, she is not looking at the long game being played by her opponents.