Albany's two-judge tango

Daily Point

Senate confirms Wilson as chief judge

The State Senate’s judiciary committee earlier today held an extraordinarily unusual confirmation hearing for a New York Court of Appeals associate judge. There was no current vacancy.

The tango danced in Albany was fraught with possible missteps. Timing was critical for Gov. Kathy Hochul to execute a deal with Senate leadership to fill two seats on the state’s top court in quick succession before members of their party’s left wing could rebel and before Republicans could take legal action to stop them from getting another judge on the bench.

Senators on the committee universally praised the potential candidate, Caitlan Halligan, in a session that was in sharp contrast to the knifing of Appellate Judge Hector LaSalle who did not win confirmation in February as chief judge. After the defeat of LaSalle, Hochul nominated associate judge Rowan Wilson as chief judge to appease those in her party who wanted an activist who they assumed would agree with their policy views.

Wilson’s nomination was easily approved Monday by the committee – and the Senate confirmed him 40-19 on Tuesday evening.

Wilson’s elevation creates the opening for Halligan. Hochul announced both choices as a package plan, which required her to amend the state nominating process. The queuing up of back-to-back hearings was designed to prevent Senate Democrats from wiggling out of the deal they made to get Wilson as chief. The yet-unnominated Halligan, a Democrat, has impeccable credentials. She was twice nominated by President Barack Obama to a top federal court only to be blocked by Republicans who felt she was too liberal and wanted to stop her from a post considered a stepping stone to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So why wouldn’t the litigious New York GOP take advantage of the questionable legal move that allowed Hochul to select two judges from the same list of nominations? If they wanted to get an emergency court order stopping Hallligan’s nomination, they most likely would have to do so in the time between Wilson’s confirmation and Halligan’s vote.

“The reality is that she is the best we are going to get,” one GOP senator told the Point while acknowledging that some in the conference wanted to challenge the law change as unconstitutional. Even if the GOP won the procedural point, there was no guarantee that Halligan would be on any new list, that Hochul would nominate her again, or that the delay would not allow the left-wing opposition to crusade for another candidate like Wilson. By the end of the day, it seems the GOP conference made the pragmatic choice.

The six current members on the Court of Appeals split 3-3 in the 2022 redistricting case that threw out the Democrats’ gerrymandered maps. Since Wilson was already in dissent, Halligan could be the deciding vote in the Democrats' new attempt to override that decision and draw new congressional districts in time for 2024.

“Caitlan Halligan has a sterling reputation with people on both sides of the political aisle,” said John Faso, a former GOP house member who has been deeply involved in the redistricting litigation.

Halligan affirmed her narrow view of a judge’s role and a respect for precedent at today’s hearing where she said not only was it important for a judge to be impartial but that the public perceived the judges as such.

“We should take the cases as they come, one by one, and decide each case on the merits,” the nominee said, adding that meant “writing opinions that are straightforward and take on the questions at hand.”

And it would be the ultimate irony if the rejection of LaSalle was all performance by the left and the court retains pretty much the same makeup as it had before former Chief Judge Janet DiFiore resigned in July, which started this all.

— Rita Ciolli @ritaciolli

Pencil Point

A Trump state of mind

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Final Point

Maragos running for Glen Cove mayor

George Maragos, the former Republican Nassau County comptroller, is running for mayor of Glen Cove as a Democrat, the party to which he’s belonged since 2016. He’s preparing to challenge Pam Panzenbeck, the first-term Republican incumbent, on Election Day.

If he succeeds, it would mark a return to elected office for the longtime businessman, who served eight years as comptroller before switching parties and wading into the 2017 scrum for Nassau County executive. Laura Curran defeated him in the Democratic primary; she went on to win the general election that year. Maragos subsequently discussed running for Congress but decided to forgo that given “good Democratic candidates” in the mix.

A former Great Neck resident, Maragos, 74, told The Point on Monday: “I’m engaged in trying to improve our public services as needed.”

Maragos speaks these days of reversing what he calls a deterioration in quality of life, some of which was related to COVID-19, including empty downtown storefronts. He cited illegal rentals in the city of 28,000 forced by a lack of affordable housing. Increases in salaries and benefits for the city’s employees have the fiscal impact of expanding projected operating deficits, he said.

Panzenbeck, a lifelong Glen Cove resident, won the mayoralty in 2021, a year that saw other wins for the GOP that continued with last year’s “red wave” across Nassau and Suffolk. The two-year term prior to Panzenbeck’s victory featured a Democratic mayor and all-Democratic council, which now is dominated by Republicans. Maragos, as a result, is looking to lead a full comeback ticket.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison