Days after dozens of law professors joined several rights advocacy groups in warning New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that nominating Judge Hector LaSalle to the state's top judicial seat would "take our state's law in the wrong direction," the Democratic governor announced that she'd chosen the conservative judge as the next chief judge of the state Court of Appeals.
The nomination was described as "mystifying" and "horrible news" by legal experts including public defender Eliza Orlins, who pointed to LaSalle's record on abortion and labor rights as reasons that he was "potentially the worst of the seven nominees" the governor chose between.
