Appellate Division, Second Department Presiding Justice Hector LaSalle may or may not become the first Latino to serve as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.

But no matter how the confirmation process shakes out, LaSalle has already received the distinction of encountering quite possibly the most vehement public opposition to his appointment out any past chief judge nominees since the 1970s, when New York’s constitution was amended leave it to the governor to pick someone from a list vetted by a blue-ribbon commission made up of attorneys and judges.