Chris Christie campaigned on the promise to remake New Jersey’s Supreme Court, one of the worst state courts in the country. Since then, he has had the opportunity to replace 5 of the court’s 7 justices and, sadly, asserting that he has had a checkered record in this area would be unfair to the checkerboard. As if to underscore the point, Christie has nominated yet another Democrat to the New Jersey Supreme Court. According to the Wall Street Journal (paywall):
Mr. Christie, a Republican, had been trying since 2012 to install Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman on the state’s highest court, but Democrats declined to hold hearings on the nomination.
The governor renewed his push for Mr. Bauman’s confirmation in late February, but Senate President Stephen Sweeney said he wouldn’t consider any Republican for the post.
On Monday, Mr. Christie said he would instead nominate Democrat Walter F. Timpone, a Morristown-based attorney with the firm McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP. Messrs. Christie and Sweeney appeared together at a news conference in Trenton to announce the nomination.
With this nomination, Christie solidifies what could safely be described as the worst judicial record of any Republican governor in memory. Yes, yes, he has had to deal with a hostile state senate. But if one of the most constitutionally powerful governors in the country can’t (or won’t) get his judicial nominees through the state senate, in the name of transforming the state’s legal climate, then there was never any hope for him dealing with Senator Harry Reid or other Senate Democrats who have made themselves experts in the art of judicial warfare.
None of this would be worth mentioning, but for the fact that Christie now serves as an adviser of some sort to Donald Trump. Let’s hope Trump isn’t consulting Christie on judicial nominations or legal policy.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ruuq9mAGrtE