By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n
A progressive Bronx lawmaker will lead the State Senate\u2019s powerful Judiciary Committee, Senate leadership announced this week. <\/p>\n
State Senator Luis Sep\u00falveda was tapped by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to chair the Judiciary Committee, succeeding former Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was elected Manhattan borough president and assumed office at the start of January. <\/p>\n
Sep\u00falveda, a longtime lawmaker and former attorney, will now oversee legislation related to the courts, civil and criminal procedure, judiciary issues and judicial nominations. He is the first Latino lawmaker to hold the role. <\/p>\n
Stewart-Cousins called her pick a \u201csteady hand\u201d with \u201cdeep legal understanding, and a strong commitment to transparency that will be critical as the committee continues its work this legislative session.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI am confident that under his leadership, the Judiciary Committee will continue to set a high standard for fairness and transparency,\u201d the Senate majority leader added. \u201cI congratulate Sen. Sep\u00falveda on this well-deserved appointment and look forward to working with him as he leads the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Sep\u00falveda said he was \u201cimmensely proud to be the first Latino appointed to chair this committee and deeply grateful to Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins for entrusting me with this responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bronx elected official, who previously served in the State Assembly and has pushed for a number of criminal justice reforms, said that he would lead the committee in the hopes of reforming the state\u2019s courts. <\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout my career as both a practicing attorney and legislator, I have worked tirelessly to make the courts accessible and equitable for everyone,\u201d he added. \u201cIn this new capacity, I will continue carrying that mission forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sep\u00falveda first made his way to Albany in 2013, when he was elected to the Assembly. <\/p>\n
In 2018, he was elected to the State Senate, where he chaired the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee. <\/p>\n
Prior to serving in elected office, Sep\u00falveda was a practicing attorney. He got his law degree from Hofstra Law School, worked at a firm in Long Island for some years before opening a private practice in the Bronx. <\/p>\n
Sep\u00falveda\u2019s status as the first Latino lawmaker to hold the chairperson position in the Judiciary Committee is significant. <\/p>\n
The lawmaker was a vocal advocate for Governor Kathy Hochul\u2019s one-time chief judge pick, Hector LaSalle, in 2022. <\/p>\n
Though Hoylman-Sigal and a majority of the Judiciary Committee were opposed to LaSalle\u2019s nomination \u2013 and would eventually go on to reject it \u2013 Sep\u00falveda was in support. <\/p>\n
Had LaSalle been confirmed, he would have been the first Latino judge to hold the top judicial position in the state. Instead, he now holds the distinction of being the only chief judge nominee to be rejected by the legislature. <\/p>\n
Sep\u00falveda decried LaSalle\u2019s treatment during a five-hour hearing in 2022 ahead of his ultimate rejection. <\/p>\n
\u201cJudge LaSalle faced the most intense scrutiny during a nearly five hour hearing and demonstrated that he was more than qualified to assume the position,\u201d Sep\u00falveda said in a statement at the time. \u201cHe demonstrated his intellectual and professional capacity. Apparently, when it comes to Latinos, we are never good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January 2023, as Hochul\u2019s pick appeared to be headed toward a rejection, Sep\u00falveda rallied alongside the governor and a number of other Latino leaders to urge support for LaSalle. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care if this fight costs me my political career,\u201d he said at the rally. \u201cThis is the hill I\u2019m going to die on.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sep\u00falveda was a sponsor or co-sponsor on a number of criminal justice reform bills that have since been passed into law. <\/p>\n
Among them was the Raise the Age law, which the governor is reportedly hoping to scale back during budget negotiations this year. <\/p>\n
Any attempt to reform the law through the budget could potentially have to pass through Sep\u00falveda\u2019s Judiciary Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye A progressive Bronx lawmaker will lead the State Senate\u2019s powerful Judiciary Committee, Senate leadership announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-100231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-the-bronx","13":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","14":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}