On February 11, the New York State Senate approved the nomination of City University of New York School of Law Professor Jenny Rivera to the New York Court of Appeals, the State’s highest court. I am proud to have spoken forcefully in support of Professor Rivera at a hearing on her nomination, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. My comments defending her qualifications against Republican criticisms were cited in news sources including the New York Law Journal [3], Reuters [4] and Albany Times Union [5]. Professor Rivera, who is also founder and director of CUNY Law’s Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality, has had a long and distinguished career in public service law, including as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of New York City, as an Associate Counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She was also Commissioner of the NYC Commission on Human Rights from 2002 to 2007 and spent 18 months in the Office of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights. I commend Governor Cuomo for selecting such an exceptional candidate and I congratulate Justice Rivera on her confirmation.
