ALBANY — Jenny Rivera, Gov. Cuomo’s controversial choice for the state’s highest court, withstood GOP opposition to win state Senate confirmation yesterday.
Rivera, Carmen Ciparick’s replacement on the state Court of Appeals, clerked for now-Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and worked for Cuomo when he was state attorney general.
She is a professor at the CUNY School of Law and founded its Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality, which she directs.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Bonacic (R-Orange) dissed the pick as “social engineering.”
“Maybe it’s just coincidence the first Latina judge on the state’s highest court is being replaced by the second Latina judge,” he said.