The Republican-led state Senate on Wednesday confirmed Appellate Division, First Department, Justice Paul Feinman to the Court of Appeals, making him the first openly gay judge on New York's highest court.

“The fact that we are promoting today someone who is the first openly LGBT person in the 170-year history of the Court of Appeals is a historic event we have to make note of,” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat from Manhattan and the only openly gay member of the chamber.

State Sen. John DeFrancisco, the deputy majority leader, after reading aloud Feinman's lengthy resume to his colleagues, jested that Feinman was “born to be a judge.”