What Hochul accomplished with the LaSalle pick

Gov. Kathy Hochul made history recently: She became the first governor to see a nominee to the state’s highest court shot down in a state Senate committee. By a vote of 10-9, Democrats successfully blocked Hector LaSalle, a state Supreme Court judge, from getting a full floor vote. Hochul has vowed legal action—she might argue in court that the Senate is required by the state constitution to hold a floor vote—but her success is unlikely. The LaSalle nomination looks dead.

Why does it matter? LaSalle was Hochul’s pick to replace Janet DiFiore, the retired chief judge on the Court of Appeals. The chief judge oversees the state’s entire court system and is influential on the seven-member Court of Appeals, which rules on a wide range of matters pertaining to real estate, criminal justice and consumer affairs. In recent years the court has had a conservative bent under DiFiore, a former Republican prosecutor. Left-leaning and socialist Democrats in the state Senate had hoped to tug the court leftward.