Senate President Nicholas Scutari signaled earlier this year that the state Senate might convene in the summer to approve judges, but that appears unlikely now. (Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey lawmakers have not met to confirm new judges during their customary summer recess, and the Democratic National Convention , a procedural deadline, and legislators’ summer schedules could keep them from convening until the fall.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) in late June suggested his members could return to Trenton in August to confirm Supreme Court nominee John Jay Hoffman and other nominees tapped for seats on the Superior Court, but the Senate has not gathered, and it’s not clear the chamber will until September.
Lawmakers had hoped to confirm Hoffman before the start of the new court session on Sept. 1 to replace Justice Lee Solomon, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, judicial vacancies that have plagued the state for much of Gov. Phil Murphy’s time in office were down to 40 at the end of June, their lowest level in years, but have since risen to 43, with one judge due to retire on Sept. 1 and five others set to age out or step down by the end of the year.
Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and other top judiciary officials have said the courts could operate sustainably with as many as 30 vacancies. Scutari in June said the state is “no longer in a state of emergency” when it comes to judicial vacancies, but Bill Mergner, president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, objects.
“I have the greatest respect for the Senate president, have known him his entire legal career. But when it’s said that the judicial crisis is over, I think that’s unfair to sitting judges,” Mergner said Monday. “I speak with judges virtually every day, and the most common thing that I hear is how heavy the workload is.”
Mergner added that he believes the increased workload created by vacancies is causing more judges to retire sooner.
The Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago, which some New Jersey lawmakers like Scutari are attending, makes it unlikely the Senate will meet this week (the event wraps Thursday evening).
A potential meeting in late August would also brush against a procedural deadline in the state constitution that makes bills that have sat on the governor’s desk for at least 45 days law without the governor’s signature when their chamber of origin next calls a quorum, as the Senate must when it convenes a voting session.
Lawmakers in both chambers approved a flurry of bills on June 28, and while Murphy has signed some bills, others that began in the Senate are still on his desk after the Aug. 12 45-day-rule deadline.
Murphy and Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way have so far signed 13 of the 33 Senate bills approved by both chambers in late June.
The deadline doesn’t guarantee bills will become laws without the governor’s signature. When previously met with that deadline, Murphy has issued a flurry of last-minute bill actions.
Spots of concern in some counties
Though overall judicial vacancies remain lower than they have been for much of the past four years, vacancies in a handful of New Jersey counties are approaching levels that could require the courts to pause some trials to direct judges’ limited time to family law and criminal cases the judiciary considers most pressing.
That would not be unprecedented. Rabner last year paused civil and divorce trials in Passaic County and two multi-county court jurisdictions where no fewer than 25% of seats there were vacant (trials have since resumed in all three court districts).
In Vicinage 15, a court jurisdiction covering Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties, a little more than 32% of seats were vacant when Rabner paused some trials there.
As of Monday, at least 20% of judgeships were vacant in four counties — Mercer, Somerset, Sussex, and Union.
Somerset and Sussex counties fall within multi-county court districts where overall staffing remains high. The latter county’s small size means there is only one vacancy there, and there are nominees for all three vacancies in Somerset.
Union and Mercer counties had six and five vacancies, respectively, and none of the nine would-be Superior Court judges awaiting confirmation hailed from those counties. Mergner said some the Bar Association’s judicial and prosecutorial appointments committee had vetted potential judges from Union County.
“I feel like they’re working towards a package, but the time lag to do that is such that they’re sitting there … with very few judges,” Mergner said.
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