I love my country. I love calling myself a Jersey boy too. So when I hear someone take a swipe at my state, I am not afraid to put said person in his or her place. But when that person is the Governor Christopher J. Christie, then all bets are truly off...
Last week, students in various parts of NJ (Newark, Montclair, Paterson) protested the budget cuts in education by walking out of their classrooms. (The week before, voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposed tax cuts.) I commend those students who walked out in solidarity (and for those who did it to get out of school, you need to get your priorities in order) of their teachers.
In addition to that, the governor has already proposed cuts to the state's public libraries, which would affect programs like Inter-Library Loans (ILLs), and reduced hours and services. In fact, six municipal libraries had to shut their doors. Assaults on public knowledge, while always a part of the GOP stock and trade, have really been coming to the forefront in NJ http://www.nj.com/....
But what happened this past week is the real stunner. For those who do not know, Gov. Christie stated that he will not re-nominate State Supreme Court Associate Justice John Wallace to another term, and instead picked Anne Murray Patterson, a Republican operative, in his stead. Justice Wallace's term does not end until two weeks from today, and he is currently 68 years of age. (The mandatory age of retirement from the state bench is 70.) If in the event that Wallace is not renominated, then Chief Justice Stuart Rabner may do one of two things. He may pick a retired justice to serve on an interim basis, or he may pick the senior appellate division judge to do the job on an interim basis. In NJ, Supreme court justices serve on a seven-year basis, after which the governor then decides to give said judge tenure (similar to how most colleges and universities dish out tenure, maybe not nearly as messy).
But I digress. Christie's thinking is that the court has become "too activist" (translation: too liberal for his liking). But when he was asked which decisions of Wallace's to which he took exception, the governor couldn't name one. This is pure politics, and it will infect the state judiciary for a long timehttp://www.nj.com/....
But this is part of a larger problem. Since state supreme court justices usually get renominated (barring anything egregious, such as "lacking judidical temperament or incompetence), this was a political decision, plain and simple. But Christie knows that the Democratic-held state Senate, led by Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) has basically said "Forget it" to Christie.http://www.nj.com/... Christie knows that he cannot force the Senate to give Anne Murray Patterson a hearing, espcially since Wallace is not the judicial activist that Christie insists he is. For example, Wallace was not in favor of marriage equality (Supporting civil unions instead). The only thing that Patterson brin gs to the table is the fact that she has donated over $20,000 to the state GOP.http://www.nj.com/...
The governor's decision is at best short-sighted and worst detrimental to the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. Judges such as the Honorable Roberto Rivera-Soto and the Honorable Helen Hoens, who were appointed during the Corzine administration, are aware that their jobs could be on the line as well. The people of NJ owe it to their posterity to speak out for an independent judiciary that will not be beholden to Trenton's (and especially Christie's) machinations.
As an aside: Justice Wallace is the only African-American on the State Supreme Court and the only the second to sit on the state's highest court.http://www.nj.com/...