Speaking alongside New York’s newest and first openly gay judge on the state’s highest court, Governor Andrew Cuomo praised Paul Feinman’s legal experience and also marked the occasion of his appointment to New York Court of Appeals on the same day as New York City’s annual Pride March.
“Today is also a day that marks a period of great progress. Today we say, ‘We are appointing a great judge and a person who is gay.’ Twenty years ago we would say ‘Paul Feinman is a great judge, but he is gay.’ The difference between ‘and’ and ‘but’ – that preposition – is all the difference in the world,” said Cuomo while attending the New York City Pride Breakfast.
Feinman was appointed and confirmed to the New York Court of Appeals after the death of Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam. He said he hoped his appointment to the court would add to the “great diversity of perspective that the court considers when it’s resolving cases.”
