Party reformers sued<\/a>, arguing that the outgoing members were not authorized to vote on \u201csubstantial changes\u201d to the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n In her ruling, Epstein seemed to agree, citing state election law, party bylaws, and past case law<\/a>. The outgoing members \u201cwho were not re-elected at the June 2026 primary had no authority to vote at the August 25, 2026 meeting with respect to the rule amendments,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n She issued permanent injunctions blocking the party from implementing the rule changes and preventing the party from allowing the outgoing executive committee from \u201cexercising functions on substantial matters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If the ruling stands, the party\u2019s executive committee will not be expanded, and Bichotte Hermelyn is likely to be voted out at the upcoming organizational meeting. That meeting is currently scheduled for Sept. 23<\/a>, and is required by law to be held between Sept. 17 and Oct. 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday is a victory for democracy, the will of the voters, and the rule of law,\u201d said Julio Pe\u00f1a III, a longtime district leader and the reformers\u2019 pick as next chair. \u201cThe party chair\u2019s attempt to pack the Executive Committee with loyalists in order to keep her seat \u2013 instead of respecting the election results \u2013 is an affront to our party\u2019s commitment to democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n In court last week, Paul Newell, a lawyer for the reformers, said the case would have significant legal implications.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a chair can appoint more members of the governing body than are actually elected by the voters of Brooklyn, it is fundamentally impossible for Brooklyn Democrats to ever govern their party ever again,\u201d Newell said at the time. \u201cThis will be the permanent end of small-D democratic governance of the Democratic Party.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Brooklyn Democratic Party said it will appeal the ruling. In a statement, the party\u2019s executive committee said the court\u2019s decision \u201cis a disappointment and undermines the lawful work of the Kings County Democratic Executive Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n At the center of the legal battle is the monthslong period between the June primary election and the party\u2019s organizing meeting. New district leaders are elected to the county committee in June, but typically don\u2019t formally take over their new positions until the fall organizing meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n In their lawsuit, reformers pointed to a section of state election law that says county and state committee members \u201cshall hold office until the next election at which members of the committee are elected\u201d and to a party bylaw that says \u201conly persons elected as State Committee members \u2026 are authorized to vote\u201d<\/p>\n Both rules, they argued, indicated that the outgoing executive committee members had effectively lost their positions and were no longer able to vote.<\/p>\n In court, the Brooklyn Democratic Party pointed to the section of election law that requires the county committee to have its organizing meeting between Sept. 17 and Oct. 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUntil such organization meeting, the existing county committee shall exercise all legal authority,\u201d the law reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n In her ruling, Epstein noted that primary elections used to be held in September, with the county organizing meetings held just a few weeks later. When the primaries were moved to June in 2019, the state legislature amended election law to say that \u201cexisting\u201d committees would hold power until those meetings took place.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026this amendment to Election Law was clearly intended to ensure that county and state committees could continue to function during the nearly three-month period between the primary and the date that an organizational meeting could be held,\u201d Epstein wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since not every section of the law was amended, there is some \u201cambiguity\u201d when the sections are read together, Epstein wrote, which should be addressed by the state legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n But, she said, that ambiguity does not impact voting membership of the party\u2019s executive committee, as Brooklyn Democratic Party bylaws clearly state \u201conly persons elected as State Committee members \u2026 are authorized to vote\u201d on the executive committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThe voting membership of the Executive Committee is thus in no way tied to any vote by the county committee or the County Committee\u2019s organizational meeting,\u201d Epstein wrote, adding that per state law, the newly-elected committee members become the \u201cexisting committee\u201d when they win during the primary election.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement, the party\u2019s executive committee claimed Epstein\u2019s decision \u201cdisregards the clear intent of Party Rules and decades of practice recognizing the Executive Committee\u2019s authority to adopt rules and reforms necessary to prepare for an incoming County Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt misinterprets those rules and disrupts the established practice that ensures stability during transitions,\u201d they added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawsuit highlights split in Brooklyn Democratic Party<\/p>\n The lawsuit underlined longstanding tensions among the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Bichotte Hermelyn abruptly pulled \u2013 then reinstated<\/a> \u2014 the party\u2019s endorsement of Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year and attempted to push<\/a> several reform district leader candidates off the ballot through a series of lawsuits ahead of the June primary. Reformers have also slammed Bichotte Hermelyn for failing to defend Democratic incumbents in southern Brooklyn, where Republicans have successfully flipped three state Assembly seats and one state Senate seat since 2022<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis ruling could not be clearer: the party chair must respect the election result,\u201d said New Kings Democrats president Tony Melone, in a statement \u201cThe court has affirmed what nearly all our city, state, and federal representatives have said: it\u2019s time for our party to hold a normal meeting under the rules that were in place at the time of the election, and let the elected District Leaders choose the next party chair. Then we can work together to win in November.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge tossed out Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn\u2019s party rule changes on Monday, declaring that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[128457,2978,22343,98,18390,100,99,10916,128460,2803,419,25138,53882,2659,126359,5112,54530,91,130034,9,24,370,63,87,17961,126361,62059,130035,130036],"class_list":["post-347586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-anthony-jones","tag-appeal","tag-appellate-court","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-democratic-party","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-brooklyn-supreme-court","tag-county-committee","tag-court","tag-courts","tag-decision","tag-district-leaders","tag-election","tag-jill-epstein","tag-judge","tag-julio-peu00f1a-iii","tag-lawyer","tag-new-kings-democrats","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-rodneyse-bichotte-hermelyn","tag-rule-change","tag-ruling","tag-state-committee","tag-tony-melone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347586","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=347586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"brooklyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789500130_162_IMG_1738-e1788387424595.jpg\")
Julio Pe\u00f1a III (front) and other District Leaders rallied against the rule changes earlier this month. File photo by Kirstyn Brendlen<\/p>\n![\"anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DSC_9457.jpg\")
District Leader Anthony Jones, who supports Bichotte Hermelyn, outside the Aug. 25 meeting. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n![\"rodneyse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20250212i_1500.jpg\")
If the ruling holds, Bichotte Hermelyn may lose her position as chair later this month. Photo courtesy of NYS Assembly<\/p>\n