A panel of New Jersey legislators addressed the pressing issue of judicial vacancies at the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting and Convention, acknowledging that lack of state judges has reached crisis levels.
Seven state senators and assembly members expressed their frustrations that the nomination process for judges in the state – largely hampered by a slow bureaucracy – has contributed to an 18% vacancy rate in the state judiciary. A few representatives, however, showed optimism that at least some vicinages will see vacancy rates drop to zero by the end of the year.
State Senators Jon Bramnick, Anthony Bucco, M. Teresa Ruiz, Troy Singleton, Michael Testa and Assembly members Victoria Flynn and John McKeon joined the roundtable.
“We’ve heard that there is an acceptable level of vacancies,” said NJSBA First Vice President Timothy F. McGoughran, who moderated the panel. “Why shouldn’t that number be zero?”
There are currently 73 Superior Court vacancies statewide out of 463 judge seats. That number will grow to an historic high of 75 by the beginning of May. An additional 22 judges are expected to leave the bench by the end of 2022. And the state Supreme Court – currently operating with only six justices – will lose another to retirement in July.
Several factors have contributed to the vacancy rates, including the pandemic taking focus off judicial nominations, the governor’s office not nominating people who will get approval from their home county senator, and senators unable to form a consensus on nominees. The number of judges opting for early retirement has also risen.
As a result, courts cases continue to pile up while judges and their staff risk burnout from shouldering the workload. There is currently a backlog in cases due to the pandemic, and many criminal defendants detained pre-trial continue to languish in jail.
The issue is so pronounced that the state is receiving national attention for vacancy rates, according to Testa.
“I don’t like when New Jersey gets negative attention from the national media that 18% of our judiciary has vacancies,” Testa, a former NJSBA Trustee, said. “That’s a real problem. We know this as attorneys that justice delayed is justice denied.”
A key cog in the process is the rule of senatorial courtesy, according to McGoughran. The move allows a state senator to indefinitely block a nomination by another state senator within the same county.
With senatorial courtesy in place, the process to replace a judge takes three to six months, Ruiz said.
“I don’t think any one of us would agree that having any vacancies on any judicial bench is acceptable,” Ruiz said. “The thing is, it’s a nuanced process.”
But senatorial courtesy is important, according to Ruiz, to ensure that judges come from diverse backgrounds and represent a fair cross section of the state, “so that when justice is served, it’s not being served through one particular view or avenue, but it’s done on an equitable basis.”
Ruiz said that Essex County, the county with the state’s largest caseload – which is missing roughly 20% of its judges – should have its vacancy rates at zero by the year’s end.
Singleton said he hated the senatorial courtesy as an assemblyman, because so many talented people got caught up in the nomination process. It’s necessary, however, for the judiciary to be a microcosm of the state from gender and racial perspective.
“Senatorial courtesy allows us that opportunity,” he said.
Bramnick said he has proposed a bill for the governor and senators to meet every 60 days in a room, instead of having senators discuss nominations back and forth among each other.
“Unless everybody gets in a room, there’s more and more delay,” he said.