“At a moment of increasing state-level litigation attacking abortion rights, we need a Chief Judge with a clear record of defending New Yorkers’ abortion rights, not a conservative judge who has shown willingness to strike down those laws as unconstitutional,” said Peter Martin, an attorney who serves as director of Judicial Accountability at the Center for Community Alternatives.

Martin, who coordinated a coalition of nearly 150 organizations to petition for a new chief judge who would protect the state’s most vulnerable people through the law, called for the Senate to reject LaSalle’s nomination.