TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Gov. Chris Christie announced a deal with the top Democrat in the Legislature on Wednesday that breaks the stalemate over Supreme Court justices with the re-nomination of the Democratic chief justice and the nomination of a Republican jurist selected by the governor.
Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney announced the deal at an afternoon news conference on the re-nomination of Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and the nomination of Superior Court Judge Lee Solomon.
“I have never doubted the chief justice’s integrity, his qualifications, his ability to do the job, and I think in the main he has done his job extraordinarily well,” Christie said of Rabner.
He said reports that Rabner’s job was in jeopardy because it was at odds with Christie’s vow to reshape the high court were mistaken.
“We couldn’t have come up with a better deal here,” said Sweeney.
The deal means a de-escalation of a long-standing feud between Christie and the Democrat-controlled Senate over the makeup of the top court. A seventh seat will remain vacant, to be filled on a temporary basis by the most senior judge on the Superior court.
If both jurists are confirmed as expected, the partisan balance of the court would remain three Republicans, three Democrats and one independent.
Rabner, 53, could then serve until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. An appointee of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, Rabner has served one seven-year term.
New Jersey’s judicial community gave him an early thumbs up with the bar associations of all 21 counties signing a petition urging Christie to reappoint him. Judicial independence has been a major issue for the bar association.
Solomon, 59, who previously ran the state’s Board of Public Utilities, is now on the bench of the Superior Court. Solomon had been on Christie’s short list to fill a prior Supreme Court opening.
Solomon served in the state Assembly from 1991 until 1996 and was the last Democrat elected to the Legislature from Camden County.
Christie has appointed him repeatedly, first as Deputy U.S. Attorney for southern New Jersey, then as head of the Board of Public Utilities and then as judge. When Christie named Solomon a judge, he named Solomon’s wife, Dianne, to the utilities board.
Christie, a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, campaigned in 2009 on a pledge to remake a court he viewed as too activist. He has criticized its rulings on issues including affordable housing, education funding and gay marriage, and refused to reappoint two previous justices.
In 2010, he declined to reappoint John Wallace, the court’s only African American and considered a moderate.
Democrats then rejected or stalled four other Christie nominees and approved two of his choices.
They rejected Phillip Kwon, who would have been the first Korean-American on the court, and Bruce Harris, who would have been the first openly gay justice. Neither Kwon nor Harris had any judicial experience.
They then refused to hold hearings for Robert Hanna, who has since taken a lower-court judgeship, and Superior Court Judge David Bauman, whose nomination expired in January.
Another Christie nominee, Judge Faustino Fernandez-Vina, was confirmed for a position on the high court in January. Christie’s first nominee, corporate lawyer Anne Patterson, was sworn in in 2011.
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