The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the nominations of Bruce Harris and Phillip Kwon for seats on the State Supreme Court this morning.
The hearings can be followed live on the Legislature’s website.
If you want to understand what rule by liberal judges looks like on the state level, you need only look at New Jersey, which is teetering on bankruptcy though it remains one of America’s wealthiest states. ~ Steven Malanga, writing in City Journal
If you want to understand how, despite being one of the wealthiest states in the country, New Jersey is teetering on the brink of fiscal disaster, read Steven Malanga’s The Court That Broke New Jersey.
If you want to know why no governor or state legislature can reduce New Jersey’s oppressive property taxes, read Steven Malanga’s The Court That Broke New Jersey.
Malanga traces the roots of New Jersey’s tyranical Supreme Court all the way back to Arthur Vanderbilt, the first Chief Justice under the 1947 state constitution. In his opinion in Winberry v. Salisbury, Vanderbilt layed the foundation for judicial tyrnany by ruling that the court, not the legislature, has the power to make rules for the state judiciary.
That ruling set New Jersey’s judiciary apart from the court systems in most other states—as well as from the federal judiciary, which ultimately derives its authority from Congress. Some critics have even argued that Winberry violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee that every state must have a republican form of government. “Under the doctrine of Winberry v. Salisbury,” wrote New Jersey lawyer Anthony Kearns in a 1955 ABA Journal article, “we can only conclude that laws of practice and procedure are exclusively in the hands of men who are not elected.”
Malanga clearly lays out how New Jersey’s Supreme Court has taken over the state’s education policy and funding with no improvement in urban education to show for the $40 billion that has been wasted as a result of the Abbott decisions. He lays out the history of how the court usurped local zoning power with the Mt. Laurel decisions and COAH. He connects the dots in explaining how those two extra-constitutional power grabs have resulted in massive wealth redistribution, with no societal benefit, and an oppressive system of goverments.
Malanga stressed the importance of Christie’s promise to reshape the court with judges who will interpret the constitution rather than relating to it as a “living document.” However, he is not optimistic because of “…a Democrat-controlled legislature that’s often happy to dodge responsibility for heavy spending by letting the court mandate it.”
Hat tip to InTheLobby for bring this important article to our attention.
The press is vetting Govenor Chris Christie’s nominees to the State Supreme Court.
NJ.com, The Star Ledger’s website, posted an article this morning about the family business of nominee Phillip Kwon. Kwon’s mother owns a liquor store in Mt. Vernon, NY that made a $160,000 settlement with the New York U.S. Attorney’s office over $2,000,000 in allegedly “structured” cash bank deposits. “Structuring” is the practice of spreading out cash deposits in order to avoid the $10,000 trigger that requires the bank to report the deposit to the IRS.
There is no evidence or allegation that Kwon had anything to do with the business or the transactions. There was no admission of liablity in the settlement.
Star Ledger columnist/blogger Paul Mulshine reports that Bruce Harris, the African-American gay Mayor of Chatham that Christie nominatied to the Court along with Kwon this week, wrote an email to state senators, including Joe Pennacchio, asking that they support the same sex marriage bill that was before the Senate during the lame duck session of 2009.
Harris’s email said, in part (with emphasis added):
The New Jersey Supreme court has determined that our relationship is entitled to the equal protection guarantees of the State Constitution. The New jersey Civil Union Review Commission determined that civil unions do not provide the equality the State Constitution mandates.(Please take a few moments and visit www.gardenstateequality.org. which has two short videos that provide sad examples of the failures of the civil union law.)
Mulshine points out that there is no equal protection clause in the State Constitution. Mulshine quotes conservative Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll regarding “originalists” interpretations of the State Constitution:
“No originalist can tell me there’s an equal protection clause in the constitution. No originalist can tell me there’s a right to a thorough and efficient education or a right to affordable housing.”
As much as Christie has done, and is attempting to do, to reform New Jersey’s government, there is nothing more important he can do that make sure conservatives, “orignalists,” are seated on the Supreme Court. The State Supreme Court will be his legacy.
I hope that Christie is not using the same standard that former Governor Christine Todd Whitman used to populate the Court, i.e., appointing friends and senior staffers or making “diversity” appointments for political gain.
The activist State Supreme Court, with the consent of the Legislature and six governors/acting governors, have destroyed New Jersey’s economy over the two decades.
Governor Christie needs to make sure his nominees have the “right stuff.” Hopefully Kwon and Harris do.
Harris said we would recuse himself from cases involving gay marriage. Now that he is going to be a Justice, if confirmed, he needs to brush up on the State Constitution.
As for Kwon, the news of his mother’s business with the feds is interesting but does not qualify him.
The question the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the press, should ask, is what does qualify Kwon and Harris.
Is being the Governor’s long term trusted colleague enough? Is being Black and gay enough?
Maybe it is. But similar standards did not serve us well with Whitman’s Court.
With Just 56 Days Remaining In The Session, Let’s Hope The Legislature Gets Back From Their Current Vacation Ready To Finally Address Some Of New Jersey’s Most Pressing Issues
“You know we have more work to do, the tool kit has to happen. We have to find a way to put a tool kit together, again I’m sure it will be some kind of a compromise, but the core principles will be the same. … We need to continue to work now and seize the momentum that the Governor said to continue to make improvements in New Jersey.”– Senate President Steve Sweeney, Press Conference On Bipartisan Property Tax CapCompromise, July 3, 2010
THE LEGISLATURE HAS FAILED TO TAKE ACTION ON KEY ELEMENTS OF GOVERNOR CHRISTIE’S REFORM AGENDA
Education Reform
Failed to take action on the Opportunity Scholarship Act (S-1872/A-2810) which establishes a five-year pilot program to provide tax credits to entities contributing to scholarships for certain low-income students.
Failed to take action on the School Children First Act (S-2881/A-4168) to provide for an educator evaluation system based on multiple measures of teacher effectiveness.
Failed to take action on the Urban Hope Act (S-3002/A-4264) which provides for the creation of as many as ten “transformation school projects” in the worst performing districts.
Failed to act on Charter Reform (A-4167) to provide critical updates to strengthen and improve New Jersey’s charter law.
Civil Service Reform
Legislature-passed Civil Service Reform failed to include the critically needed opt-out and furlough options for municipalities.
Sick Leave Reform
Public employee unused sick leave and vacation payouts cost New Jersey taxpayers over $43 million in 2010.
Ethics Reform
Failed to take up Governor Christie’s Ethics Reform Package, Introduced back in September, 2010.
Failed to Act to bring Accountability and Transparency to the Legislature through Increased Disclosure (CV of A2768)
Shadow Government Reform
Failed to Act on Bipartisan Legislation to Extend Oversight and Accountability to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners and the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission.
Failed to Act on Governor Christie’s Comprehensive Shadow Government Reform Legislation.
MEANWHILE, SEVERAL OTHER CRITICAL TOOL KIT REFORM BILLS LANGUISH IN THE LEGISLATURE
A-1646/S-1781
Directs that one sample ballot shall be delivered to each residence address where at least one resident thereof is registered to vote.
A-2951/S-2174
Eliminate eligibility for State retirement systems for non- government groups and associations.
A-2958/S-2012
Allows gross income tax refunds to be credited against a taxpayer’s delinquent local property taxes.
A-2953/S-2024
Permits layoff plans as substitute for employment reconciliation plans for joint meetings or shared service agreements under certain circumstances.
A-2955/S-2135
Employee Discipline Reform. Limits right of appeal of disciplinary action taken by employer against certain public employees.
A-2960/S-2043
Concerns collective negotiations for school employees; repeals law prohibiting school boards from imposing terms and conditions of employment.
A-2961/S-2025
Authorizes executive county superintendent of schools to require implementation of shared services arrangements and to approve school district collective negotiations agreements prior to execution of agreement.
A-2962/S-2027
Concerns collective negotiations for public institutions of higher education.
A-2963/S-2026
Amends State college law to remove certain employees from civil service system and allow boards of trustees to conduct collective bargaining.
A-2964/S-2172
A-3219
A-3220
Authorizes the establishment of probationary periods for non-tenured faculty members at State colleges.
Amends State college law to allow boards of trustees to conduct collective bargaining.
Amends State college law to remove certain employees from civil service system.
NJBiz is reporting that up to 80 tenured New Jersey Judges will file suit later this month challenging the recent pension and health benefit reforms passed by the State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Christie.
The suit is to be filed in Hudson County and a Hudson County Judge will be one of the name plaintiffs.
Judges currently earn between $165,000 to $192,795 each year, and contribute from $4,950 to $5,783 to their pensions annually, according to the memo, which was issued by Superior Court Judge Melvin Gelade. Under the recently passed public worker pension and health legislation, judges hired after January 1996 would, after seven years, see their annual retirement contributions jump to between $19,800 and $23,135 a year.
The suit will ask for a temporary injunction blocking the changes, and is expected to be filed in a Hudson County court, with a Hudson County judge to be named as the lead plaintiff.
“It is anticipated that only tenured judges should actively participate in, and contribute to, the financing of a suit,” according to the memo. “Non-tenured judges may anticipate being asked about their involvement at their reappointment hearings.”
Attorney Justin Walder, a member of the Roseland law firm Walder, Hayden & Brogan, will represent the plaintiffs, according to the memo. Walder did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
“The state constitution prevents the government from tampering with our compensation while we’re serving our term,” said a judge who expects to join the suit. “We thought we would be exempt from Christie’s pension and health cutbacks, but this appears to be payback for the state Supreme Court’s Abbott District ruling.”
The judges believe the suit will ultimately reach the state Supreme Court, and hope to have the high court hear it before Christie nominee Anne Patterson is seated in September, according to the judge, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner will recuse himself from the case, the judge added.
Well it is a good thing that Rabner will recuse himself, but how do they know that given that the suit hasn’t been filed yet?
How can any New Jersey Judge possibly hear this case without a conflict?
