As the great Yogi Berra once said, it’s déjà vu all over again.
The Commission on Judicial Nomination released their list of candidates for chief judge of the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, on Friday.
Vin Bonventre, the Justice Robert H. Jackson distinguished professor of law and editor of the New York Court Watcher Blog, told Capital Tonight that the list is a “blockbuster” and is the “strongest” he “has ever seen.”
Following the state Senate’s rejection of Gov. Hochul’s first chief judge nominee, Hector LaSalle, the Commission on Judicial Nomination was tasked with compiling a new list of candidates for the governor to choose a nominee from. The list includes:
- the current acting chief judge (Anthony Cannataro)
- two current Court of Appeals judges (Rowan Wilson and Shirley Troutman)
- two presiding justices of the state’s intermediate courts (Elizabeth Garry and Gerald Whalen)
- two lawyers (Caitlin Halligan and Corey Stoughton) who Bonventre argues are some of the “great lawyers in the state perhaps even the nation.”
If Hochul were to select one of the incumbent associate judges on the Court of Appeals, she could create a new vacancy to nominate another judge. One of those judges, Shirley Troutman, who was recently confirmed by the state Senate after being nominated by Hochul, would be a “historic pick,” according to Bonventre.
Bonventre touted two candidates, Judge Wilson and Caitlin Halligan, as “Supreme Court quality” candidates and added that the governor could “immediately double, triple the prestige and influence of the court” by picking one of them.
Brian Ginsberg, partner at Harris Beach, argues that the slate of candidates is “impressive” and added Halligan’s experience in the state solicitor general’s office “will be invaluable as preparation for addressing the weighty cases that make it to the state’s highest court.”
The candidate that the governor picks will face Senate confirmation, which her previous pick, Hector LaSalle, did not receive after getting criticism from progressive Democrats on certain prior rulings. However, Bonventre argues the governor has “plenty of choices that she can get through the Senate easily.”