Sen. Brian Stack said the judiciary committee, which he chairs, is committed to filling judicial vacancies as soon as it can. (Photo by (Hal Brown/New Jersey Monitor)
The New Jersey Senate confirmed 16 judges Monday, a move that will bring the state’s judicial vacancies to the lowest level since Gov. Phil Murphy’s first year in office.
Vacancies on the Superior Court bench will fall to 11 after the jurists confirmed Monday are sworn into office. Murphy, a Democrat, leaves Trenton on Jan. 20 after two terms as governor.
Sen. Brian Stack (D-Hudson), the chamber’s judiciary chairman, said he’s happy with where the state is on judges now.
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“We just need to keep this going and keep it up. As the appointments are coming up and as seats become vacant, we are committed to filling them as soon as we can. The Senate president has made that very clear,” Stack said. “As many meetings as it takes to get that done, we will.”
Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) was the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chair for more than a decade before becoming the chamber’s top-ranked official in 2022.
Court vacancies ballooned early in Murphy’s tenure, when he frequently butted heads with Democratic legislative leadership, and they surged again when the pandemic drew lawmakers’ focus away from court staffing.
The dearth of new judges pushed Chief Justice Stuart Rabner to issue a dire warning to lawmakers in May 2022, when 75 of the state’s 433 Superior Court seats were empty.
In some counties, Rabner ordered pauses to civil and divorce trials so the courts could move criminal, family, and domestic violence cases that require speedy resolutions. Those trials have since resumed.
Top court officials have said the judiciary can operate sustainably with as many as 30 vacancies.
Monday’s votes confirmed all but two of the pending Superior Court nominations made by Murphy. The Senate did not advance the nominations of Wyckoff chief municipal prosecutor Joseph Maurice and Cranford Planning Board member Molly Hurley Kellett.
Murphy nominations that are still pending will expire when new legislators are sworn in on Tuesday.
The Senate confirmed only one of Murphy’s nominees to the Superior Court in 2018, ballooning vacancies from the nine left at the end of Gov. Chris Christie’s tenure. Stack said he does not anticipate similar standstills when Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill takes office next week.
“Obviously, it’s not always easy to get through the interview process, but I think we’ll move these along pretty quickly now going forward,” he said. “That seems to be the commitment of Governor Sherrill.”
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