COURT FIGHT: Gov. Kathy Hochul was embarrassed last year as her nomination to appoint Judge Hector LaSalle as the state’s chief judge was rejected by the Democratic-controlled state Senate. Republicans are still capitalizing on the spectacle, and they’re blaming the governor and Democrats for indirectly giving convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein a second chance in New York’s courts. “Without question,” Weinstein’s case wouldn’t have been overturned if Hochul’s nomination for chief judge played out differently, Long Island Senate Republican Anthony Palumbo said today. His GOP colleague, state Sen. Steven Rhoads, agreed: “Instead of letting the evidence and the facts lead the court in a particular direction, you now literally have a court and a chief judge that has decided in advance how he wants the case to come out.” The two were joined by colleagues on the second floor of the Capitol, where they argued the overturning of Weinstein’s conviction was “courtesy of State Senate Democrats.” Republicans like Rhoads are arguing that Senate Democrats — after rejecting LaSalle as Hochul’s more moderate pick for top judge — have forced the court into a perilously partisan direction. They claim the Weinstein ruling is part and parcel with the left’s approach to criminal justice: a soft on crime position that frees criminals from accountability. Democrats say that’s rich. “The Republicans have opposed the Child Victims Act and the Adult Survivors Act for decades in Albany,” Democratic state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who heads the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, said. “So it is the height of hypocrisy that they're now calling for sexual predators to be held accountable when they missed the opportunity during my entire tenure here in the minority and years previous to allow survivors to seek justice.” There is a reason for Republicans’ angst. Chief Judge Rowan Wilson and the court’s majority sided with Democrats in ruling in favor of new congressional maps this year, providing Democrats with a slight boost in some key House races this year. Republicans charged that the focus on redistricting left the court too liberal and a danger to New Yorkers. “It is more important to the Democratic majorities to have a favorable decision at the Court of Appeals on the redistricting case — which is what this was all about — and we'll deal with the sexual violence, the sexual abuse, being soft on crime, the other issues that we've seen coming out of court of appeals now,” Rhoads said. The argument is being raised as the issue of court packing takes hold nationally, with Biden dodging Democrats who continue to press him to expand the number of justices on the nation’s highest court and fill those spots with left-leaning judges. Democrats control the state Legislature, and thus all but one of the seven-member court is a Democrat, the exception being Michael Garcia, who was appointed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “The Court of Appeals has been stacked with political henchmen of the governor and Senate Democrats who have no issue letting monsters back into our communities,” Minority Leader Rob Ortt said in a statement. The GOP uproar also comes during a month when New York’s court system has doled out a trio of disappointing rulings for many Democrats. The first 10 days of May saw the Equal Rights Amendment blocked from the November ballot, a ruling against expediting absentee ballot tallying and a decision that New York’s ethics enforcement commission is unconstitutional (a big win for Cuomo). Still, Weinstein won’t be set free. He was also convicted by a California jury in 2022 of raping a woman at a hotel in Beverly Hills in a separate case. The GOP press conference today also occurred at the same time Democrats saw a win in the Court of Appeals. The judges ruled today that companies in the state will still be required to provide medically necessary abortions in health insurance plans. — Jason Beeferman
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