In the coming days, a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge will rule on one of the most high-profile election law cases to come in front of the bench in recent memory—a case that has attracted the attention of some of the nation's most powerful Democrats, with Senator Chuck Schumer calling it an issue that cuts to the "bedrock principle of our democracy."
On Tuesday, Judge Jill Epstein heard the closing arguments in a lawsuit filed against the Brooklyn Democratic Party and its leadership by a reformist bloc within the party, the New Kings Democrats. The reformists allege that Brooklyn Dems chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies illegally changed the rules of the party to expand its voting rolls, after they lost their elected majority of district leaders in the June Democratic primary. The reformists say the party did this in order to ensure that Bichotte Hermelyn had enough votes to hold onto power in the party's September leadership election. The county party argues it has the sovereign power to do what it wants, and says its rule changes make the party more democratic.
"One thing I want to say to the New Kings Democrats: Respect Mommy," county party loyalist Anthony T. Jones told reporter Gwynne Hogan after Tuesday's hearing, referring to Bichotte Hermelyn.
The case has shot the infighting of the Brooklyn Democratic Party to national headlines, with powerful Democrats across the country calling out the rule changes as undemocratic, a fascistic "power grab," and employing Trumpian techniques to steal the election. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the last-minute rule changes "an attempt to circumnavigate the will of voters," joining Schumer, Governor Kathy Hochul, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Attorney General Letitia James in opposing the move.
Now, members of both sides are anxiously awaiting the judge's decision in the case—a decision that will ultimately shape the future of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn. However, as Hell Gate has reported extensively through its investigative project, Courts of Contempt, the Brooklyn Supreme Court bench has a complicated relationship with the Brooklyn Democratic Party. The party leadership essentially handpicks who gets to become a judge in Brooklyn, by choosing whose names go on the ballots (indeed, the first judge assigned to the case recused himself for this reason).
Julio Peña III, the New Kings Democrats' pick for future chair, told Hell Gate the reformists are aware that it's hard to find a judge in Brooklyn that has not been intimately involved with the party machine. "I think a lot of people have concerns about us hearing in Brooklyn, and Kings County Supreme Court, but we have to have faith in our court system," he said.
Regardless of Epstein's ruling, the case is expected to go to appeals court, where it's unlikely the case will be heard by a Brooklyn judge appointed by the county party. But what do we know about the judge who has the case before her right now?