Senator Walczyk Tapped to Serve on Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Walczyk has been appointed to sit on the Judiciary Committee at a key moment. Amongst other things, the New York Senate's Committee on the Judiciary is charged with interviewing Gubernatorial Judicial nominees before they go to the full Senate for a vote.

His new post comes during one of the busiest moments of the 2023 Session in Albany. With a late budget still in the air, there's also issues that need to be addressed with the Court of Appeals, New York's top court. The Governor failed (on February 15) in her attempt to confirm Judge Hector LaSalle to the vacancy of Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. The top job in the top court remains vacant. If that position is filled by Judge Rowan Wilson, that will leave his current post empty and in need of replacement. That presumably vacant seat is where the Governor is looking to appoint Caitlin Halligan.

With only seven justices on the Court of Appeals, this nomination will have heavy, lasting implications for the constitutional freedoms of New York Citizens. If the process is allowed to be led by Albany partisans, the check and balance the Judicial branch provides will be threatened.

“I'm honored to be entrusted with this responsibility. The stakes are high because the freedoms guaranteed by our founding fathers are under attack by one-party-rule in Albany," Walczyk said. "I will give the utmost respect to my duties as a member of the Judiciary Committee and I'm looking forward to asking the tough questions. New Yorkers deserve a court system that fights for their safety and liberties, not one stacked with activist Judges who use the court to advance leftist political ideology."