Politicizing New York’s Top Court

Radical progressives are looking to turn the state’s highest court into a rubber stamp for their agenda. The nakedly ideological drive is an assault on the independent judiciary, a bulwark of democracy.

On Wednesday, City & State reported that a top gay Democratic club wrote Gov. Hochul to condemn the openly gay judge who now serves as acting chief on the Court of Appeals. It’s just part of the unseemly effort to muscle Hochul into nominating a lefty to replace departing Chief Judge Janet DiFiore.

“Although Judge [Anthony] Cannataro is openly gay, he does not represent our values,” wrote Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club prez Allen Roskoff. I.e., he’s not certain to ram the entire lefty agenda, from handcuffing cops to mandating children’s “right” to gendertransition surgery, down the public’s throat.

Progressives denounce DiFiore and the high court’s so-called “conservative” majority, which quite rightly stood by the trialcourt judge who struck down state Democrats’ blatantly unconstitutional gerrymander, among other “wrong” decisions.

Hochul’s expected to nominate a permanent replacement for DiFiore this year, once the Commission on Judicial Nominations submits its list of seven candidates. Notably, 20 state Senate Democrats, led by Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, are urging the commission to recommend progressive nominees with an “advocacy” background (criminal-defense attorneys, tenant lawyers, etc.).

Democrats already utterly dominate the high court. But the party’s far-left wants a judiciary that will smile on even blatantly unconstitutional laws, and indeed impose its agenda without the need to pass legislation.

Judges are supposed to be independent of politicians. They’re charged with deciding on the substance of a case under the laws and Constitution of New York State.

Hochul ought to show some spine and publicly reject this ugly effort to politicize New York’s highest court.