It is the MAYOR'S advisory committee on the judiciary. The mayor selects the members. He can also refuse any of the judges that are selected by the committee and send it back to the committee to come up with another name. It is obvious that Giuliani did not, as Mayor, prove that he works to appoint conservative, "constructionist" judges. That's why his CampaignSpeak(tm) promises now ring very hollow to those who know his actual record and who aren't willing to gulp the KoolAid he's passing out.
Link me to your source, please. It's nowhere near like that 2002 to the present (Mayor selects half of the 18 members, others select the rest) and, with respect, strongly doubt that it was "Mayor selects all members" before.
As you've been strongly quizzing and lecturing others in the thread about your expertise on this matter, so I'm sure you'll have the source material handy.
You are being disingenuous. The members of the Mayor's Advisory Committee are not selected by the Mayor. They are nominated by the political bosses at the local level in the various election districts that dot NYC. (My recollection is that there is a person on the Advisory Committee from each State Assembly District in NYC.) Yes, Rudy could have rejected every judicial nominee from the Democratic Party, but then there is REALITY. The Advisory Committee would have simply nominated another Democrat if only because NYC is something like 9 to 1 Dems to Pubs. In the mean time, the judical seat would have remained empty while the bosses play politics, which would have resulted in an even larger backlog of cases in the largest criminal and family court system in the Country.
Also, at this level of justice, judicial philosphy is irrelevant because these judges are not deciding cases that involve deep Constitutional questions or the interpretation of complicated statutes and regulations. Their primary job is to keep the system moving and that means criminal arraignments, bail hearings, plea bargains, orders of protection, and on rare occassions, listening to testimony and making evidentary determinations. No one with even slightest knowlege of the NYC justice system even cares whether a judge at this level is the next Antonio Scalia or the reincarnation of William O. Douglas because these judges don't have the time or power to make that kind of a difference.