Hispanic national groups issued a letter to a federal district judge in New York asking him to move forward with his recently terminated plans to retire after President Joe Biden appointed Assistant New York Attorney General Jorge Alberto Rodriguez to the office.

On August 15, the following press release was published on the website of the Latinos for a fair Judiciary organization: “In response to U.S. District Judge David Hurd’s recent decision to rescind his intention to take senior status, Latinos for a Fair Judiciary (LFJ) and its partners — LatinoJustice, Voto Latino, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), MALDEF and Mi Familia Vota — issued a letter to Judge Hurd expressing their unified disappointment and concern over his decision to interfere with the nomination of Jorge Alberto Rodriguez, who was nominated by President Joseph Biden to succeed Judge Hurd in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York”.

The entities expressed their concerns in the open letter sent to the judge a month after he reversed his decision to walk away from court upon learning that the Assistant Attorney General Jorge Alberto Rodríguez could replace him: “Judge Hurd’s decision to exploit his lifetime tenure to block the appointment of a highly qualified Latino to fill his seat is a slap in the face to not only Mr. Rodriguez, but also to the people of New York the judge swore to serve”, said Andrea Nill Sanchez, Executive Director of Latinos for a Fair Judiciary. “A judicial nomination is not a negotiation and Judge Hurd’s pretextual demands about where Mr. Rodriguez resides are baffling and inappropriate. We call on Judge Hurd to stop holding Mr. Rodriguez’s nomination hostage and make way for a new generation of jurists”.

According to the NBC News, Hurd initially announced his plans to take senior status, a type of semi-retirement for long-serving federal judges over 65 in which they agree to hear a reduced number of cases, in a letter sent to President Joe Biden on November 1st, 2021, Hurd, 85, intended to take senior status ‘effective upon the confirmation of my successor’, he wrote on his letter to Biden. ‘I look forward to providing substantial judicial service as a senior judge’. On July 13, Biden nominated Rodriguez, who has served in the Office of the Attorney General of New York since 2014, to succeed Hurd”.

Nonetheless, David Hurd seemed to have taken issue with Rodriguez's nomination because he is based in Albany, not in Utica, where Hurd1s judicial chamber is located. Hurd wrote in a July 14 letter to Biden: “I immediately rescind my decision to take senior status. I will take senior status if a confirmed successor lives in this area and is permanently assigned to the United States Courthouse in Utica, New York”.

On the other hand, the open letter to Judge David Hurd points out that “according to the 2020 Census, the Latino population in New York grew by 15 percent and now comprises nearly 20 percent of the state’s population. Even in Utica, NY, the Latino population has grown to 12 percent while the city’s immigrant and refugee community now represents a quarter of Utica’s total population”.

Rodriguez's nomination was part of a larger plan from the Biden administration to "continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds," according to a White House news release last month.

Also according to NBC, “Rodriguez, 43, would have become the first Hispanic judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York upon confirmation, according to the White House. An estimated 7% of all current federal judges in the U.S. are Latino, even though Latinos make up 19% of the nation’s population”.

During his first year in office, Biden appointed an unprecedented number of women and people of color to the bench, according to a report from the Brookings Institute published on January. Of his 41 appointees, 78% were women, 29% were Black, 17% were Asian American, 15% were Hispanic and 2% were Native American. Only 151 of more than 3,400 federal judges have been of Latino heritage since 1789, according to Federal Judicial Center data.

The White House did not respond to an NBC email requesting comment following Hurd's decision to remain in his seat.