NY majority leader to Hochul: We ‘make our own rules’ on judge pick LaSalle

Our chamber of the Legislature — our rules!

That was the message delivered by state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) Tuesday, in her first remarks since being sued over blocking Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pick to lead New York’s court system, Judge Hector LaSalle.

“The constitution allows us to make our own rules — and our rules were followed,” she said when asked about a Republican-led — and Hochul-supported — lawsuit challenging the chamber’s ability to block a full floor vote on the governor’s nomination.

She also warned that, even if the suit filed last week by state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) prevails, LaSalle is not going to get approved by the Democrat-dominated state Senate.

“I’ve always maintained that the Constitution allows us to make our rules and so … I don’t really understand [the lawsuit] because we’re entitled to make our own,” Stewart-Cousins said.

But Stewart-Cousins did not rule out holding a floor vote on LaSalle to end the ongoing stand-off with the governor over the nomination, even while promising Hochul, “This nominee does not have the votes,” in a 63-member legislative chamber dominated by 42 Democrats.

Hochul has claimed the state Senate Judiciary Committee — to which the Democratic leader added several members opposed to LaSalle, effectively stacking the deck — on Jan. 18 had no authority to vote down his nomination to become the first Latino to lead the state judiciary while doing next to nothing to make his nomination forward ever since.

Palumbo then filed a lawsuit last week arguing that the state Constitution requires the full Senate to vote up-or-down on her embattled pick.

The case hinges in part on whether Palumbo can prove that his individual rights as a senator were violated because the state Constitution says the “Senate” must vote on judicial nominees.

Some legal experts said the case could succeed though Hochul likely would have had better standing to bring a legal challenge against the state Senate.

“He’s not just complaining the entire senate did not get to vote, he has to complain about his own right to vote being denied,” Albany Law School Professor Vincent Bonventre told The Post after Palumbo filed the lawsuit.

Suffolk County Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on the case for Friday, Feb. 17.

Hochul has expressed tacit support for the lawsuit in recent days despite calls to end the standoff with her fellow Democrats by withdrawing the embattled nomination, which would open the way for a state screening panel to find a new round of candidates to lead the Court of Appeals.

“I’ve said all along that it’s very important for this judge’s nomination to go to the floor of the Senate. And obviously, the Senator on his own decided that the best way that can happen is to have it be in the court. So we’re going to wait now and see what the courts decide,” she told The Post in Manhattan on Sunday.

“Meanwhile, I’m working very hard with the legislature to get to a budget that meets the needs of New Yorkers,” Hochul, who did not rule out joining the lawsuit in the future, added.

Progressive and powerful unions like SEIU 1199 and 32BJ opposed LaSalle for supposedly being too conservative, largely based on a handful of cases, for the Empire State at a time when some Democrats want to push the Court of Appeals leftwards.

The ongoing stand-off has strained Hochul’s relationship with the political left ever since she announced his nomination in December.

“This is going to get f–king ugly,” one source told The Post at the time.

Nearly two months later, Stewart-Cousins said Tuesday that she has not spoken to Hochul about the nomination in recent weeks while downplaying the potential that ongoing friction over LaSalle might affect state budget negotiations ahead of an April 1 deadline.

“Staff is always talking to each other,” Stewart-Cousins said. “It’s not unusual for us not to be talking to each other all the time … We get along.”