Community Corner

Christie Nominates Judge, Haddon Twp. Grad to Supreme Court

Christie declined to renominate Supreme Court Justice Helen Hoens, citing resistance from legislative Democrats.

Gov. Chris Christie has once again bucked tradition, declining to renominate a Supreme Court justice and naming his own replacement, a Camden County judge with roots in Haddon Township.

Christie announced Monday he would not renominate Justice Helen Hoens because he expected Democrats in the Legislature would make her nomination extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Instead, Christie named Camden County Superior Court Judge Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina as his pick to fill Hoens’ seat after her term expires in October.

Find out what's happening in Haddonfield-Haddon Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If approved by the Legislature, Fernandez-Vina, who is of Cuban-American heritage, would be the only justice on the bench from South Jersey. He attended Haddon Township High School, where he played football, and is a graduate of Widener University and Rutgers University School of Law in Camden.

That’s a big “if” though, if the Legislature’s record of confirming Christie’s past nominations to the Supreme Court is any indication. Senate Democrats have confirmed only one out of Christie’s previous five nominees—a stalemate that has persisted since Christie declined to renominate Justice John Wallace, a Democrat and the court’s only black member, in 2010. It marked the first time since the modern court was established in 1947 that a governor had declined to renominate a justice.

Find out what's happening in Haddonfield-Haddon Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) told the Star-Ledger last month that Hoens should be denied a renomination in retaliation for Christie’s treatment of Wallace.

"There has to be a price paid for what he did," said Lesniak, a member of the Judiciary Committee. "This guy plays hardball. I’m sorry. The only way to play against someone who plays hardball is to play hardball right back."

In a statement Monday, Ralph Lamparello, president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, decried the “political one-upsmanship” that has seeped into the nominating process.

“The result of (Hoens not being renominated) will be further erosion of the independence of our courts,” said Lamparello. “As New Jersey Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll noted at the 1947 Constitutional Convention, ‘There is no liberty if the powers of judging be not separate from the legislative and executive powers.’ It is time for the governor and the Legislature to end their war over our courts.”

Fernandez-Vina—whose voting records indicate he’s a Democrat, but may be a Republican—allowed the controversial Camden County takeover of Camden’s police department, a move backed by Christie, by blocking the city police union’s attempt to delay the takeover and put the issue before voters, arguing it would unfairly restrict the city.

The Camden County judge also ruled in May that a lawsuit to try to block a planned 152-apartment complex at the former Haddonfield Lumber site could proceed against the Cherry Hill Zoning Board.


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