| ALBANY – NYGOP Chair Ed Cox released the following statement: “Kathy Hochul’s elevation of Christina Ryba to the Appellate Division is a textbook example of how New York Democrats are corrupting our courts in their quest for total control. Justice Ryba’s appointment to the Appellate Division is an example of an underqualified jurist failing upwards. “Justice Ryba’s record should have disqualified her long ago. In 2015, she was fired from her position as a clerk in the Appellate Division by then-Presiding Justice Karen Peters for ethical lapses – a firing that was deliberately timed on the eve of an election and concealed from voters in the Third Judicial District. “In 2023, Justice Ryba sat on a constitutional challenge to Democrats’ so-called “mail-in early voting” law. Despite oral arguments being held in October, she refused for months to issue a decision, effectively allowing Democrats to run out the clock ahead of the 2024 election. This was delay by design, and it served a clear political purpose. Only after being ordered by the Appellate Division near the end of the year did she finally act, issuing a rushed, sloppy opinion that reflected poorly on her legal judgment and scholarship. “Despite her checkered record, Governor Hochul has now rewarded Justice Ryba with a promotion to the Appellate Division. This is how Democrats operate in New York: judges who protect their political interests are shielded, advanced and rewarded, while the independence of our courts is sacrificed. New Yorkers are watching their judiciary be transformed into an arm of the Democratic Party.” |
