Walczyk talks appointment to Judiciary Committee, Court of Appeals nominees

Apr. 19—ALBANY — Sen. Mark C. Walczyk has been put on the Senate Judiciary Committee during a busy time for the panel.

On Monday, the committee voted to advance the nomination of the man who became New York's first Black chief justice of the Court of Appeals, Rowan D. Wilson, ending a monthslong search for someone to replace former chief justice Janet M. DiFiore.

And on Tuesday, Sen. Walczyk's first day as a committee member, the committee heard testimony from Caitlin J. Halligan, a candidate for the nomination to fill the associate justice seat on the Court of Appeals that Justice Wilson filled before he was elevated.

On Wednesday, Ms. Halligan was formally voted on by the Senate, and became an associate justice of the state Court of Appeals.

Sen. Walczyk, R-Watertown, said Senate Minority Leader Robert G. Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, put him on the Judiciary Committee because of the way he argues on the Senate floor. He's not an attorney, while most members of the committee are, and did not request the Judiciary Committee assignment when he began his first term in the Senate this year.

"Our leadership saw how firmly I fought in certain debates on the Senate floor," he said. "The way I presented arguments, and especially in this moment, they saw fit to put me on the Judiciary Committee to fill a vacancy because this was such a critical moment with these nominees."

Sen. Walczyk said this is a crucial moment for judicial appointments in New York, and said the state's Democratic leaders are working to ensure the court is more favorable to them on issues regarding redistricting in the coming months.

In the once-in-a-decade redrawing of the political maps in 2021, the Independent Redistricting Commission tasked with creating a fair map failed to agree, ceding its power back to the legislature and governor, which passed maps that were favorable to Democratic legislators at the federal and state levels.

Those maps were ruled unconstitutional by the state courts, all the way up to the Court of Appeals, which ruled that a "special master" must redraw the maps. The final congressional map passed was more favorable to Republicans, helping them pick up four seats in Congress from Democrats in the state.

"New York saw a little bit of a red wave," Sen. Walczyk said. "You could say that by going too far with redistricting, the Republicans now have control of the U.S. House. Now, if you're the (state) Senate Democrats, that's pretty embarrassing for you."

Now, Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul and Attorney General Letitia A. James have filed briefs in support of a lawsuit that calls for the redistricting commission to restart the entire process with new maps for Congress and state Senate. The IRC is already redrawing the state's Assembly maps. That case will likely go all the way up to the Court of Appeals, where Chief Justice Wilson will preside with the other six justices and offer the final ruling.

"What you're seeing right now is them wanting to stack the court, control the process, because they're embarrassed," Sen. Walczyk said.

As the committee considered Justice Halligan, the former state solicitor general who has worked in private practice for the last 16 years, Sen. Walczyk said he heard her say all of the things he would hope to hear from a judicial candidate to make it seem that she would not be biased in her rulings.

"Her answers were exactly where you would expect them to be," he said. "I hope that if she is actually nominated, and if the nomination moves forward, and she's given the consent of the Senate, that she upholds what she said she would."

But Mr. Walczyk is critical of now-Chief Justice Wilson for not doing just that. He said that when Justice Wilson was nominated to the Court of Appeals in 2017, he received universal support among Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.

"That's what's challenging about this process," he said. "He basically snowballed us, said he wouldn't be an activist judge and would respect precedent, said he wouldn't do legal gymnastics, and that's exactly what he's done on the bench."

Sen. Walczyk said he has similar concerns about Justice Halligan, made worse by the fact that she has not served as a judge at any level before, and has no prior rulings to gauge her judgment.

"She has always been an advocate for a client or her own causes, and that's what immediately gives me pause when you're talking about someone sitting on the highest court in New York state," he said.

He added that when it comes to the judicial nominees he considers as a member of the Judiciary Committee, he doesn't expect a complete lack of personal opinion.

"They're going to have their personal experiences and their own opinions — it's unavoidable to have that bias in life," he said. "But I'm looking for a candidate for the state's top court that sees the importance of, and has the ability to, and commits to setting those opinions aside and solely judging based on the law, the Constitution of the United states and the Constitution of the state of New York."