Former Governor Andrew Cuomo left the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, deeply unbalanced, with three former prosecutors but without a single judge who had dedicated their career to defending the rights of low-income and other vulnerable New Yorkers. With a vacancy on the Court at the end of this year, Governor Kathy Hochul had a chance to begin undoing some of the damage that her predecessor did and make a historic selection, by nominating one of two highly-qualified public interest lawyers, public defender Timothy Murphy or civil rights lawyer Corey Stoughton. Unfortunately, she chose not to. Her selection of Justice Shirley Troutman instead ignores the calls of progressive state legislators and dozens of legal and civic organizations and leaves the Court of Appeals dominated by former prosecutors for years to come.

In selecting Justice Troutman, the governor has chosen to recommend adding another former prosecutor to the bench. If Governor Hochul’s nominee is confirmed, a full majority of the Cuomo-Hochul Court will be made up of former prosecutors, but it will continue to lack even a single judge who made their career representing the state’s most vulnerable, whether in public defense, housing court, immigration court, or civil rights actions. We worry that this unbalanced court will, like its predecessor, favor prosecutorial and corporate power and contribute to New York’s mass incarceration crisis.

No other seats on the Court are expected to become vacant before 2025. This nomination thus represented Governor Hochul’s only opportunity to affect the Court’s composition before her current term ends next year. The governor pointedly declined to choose a candidate who would add much-needed professional diversity. Instead, she has doubled down on Cuomo’s unbalanced approach. New Yorkers hoping that Governor Hochul’s administration would depart from Cuomo’s regressive choices are rightly discouraged.

Governor Hochul’s nomination of another former prosecutor is one more indication that the system by which we select our judges in New York State badly needs to be reformed. We look forward to working with the legislature to ensure that the State Senate exercises its constitutional responsibility to scrutinize judicial nominees. And we will continue to work with legislators to develop and implement structural changes to the judicial selection and confirmation processes to ensure that New York’s courts protect the rights of all New Yorkers, especially those most in need of the law’s protections, and uphold the values that our elected officials profess to support.