James Zazzali

The State Senate has scheduled a vote to confirm James Zazzali as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court on October 23rd -- three days before Deborah Poritz leaves office. That means the top court can delay their release of the potentially landmark Gay Marriage decision until after the Senate has voted on Zazzali.

During his confirmation hearing this week, the current Associate Justice and former state Attorney General declined to comment on his vote (which has presumably already been cast and is just awaiting the release of the decision). There are no Senators publicly opposed to Zazzali's nomination, but if his confirmation is followed by the release of a no vote on gay marriage, some leaders of the New Jersey Democratic Party's more progressive wing will clearly be unhappy -- including a handful of Democratic State Senators.

The New Jersey Supreme Court returned to work this week after a four month recess with Chief Justice Deborah Poritz still in charge. Poritz must leave office by October 26, when she reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy. Governor Jon Corzine has still not announced his choice to succeed her, although the most common buzz is that Corzine will elevate Associate Justice James Zazzali to the top post and then appoint a Republican -- New Jersey Governors traditionally maintain a partisan balance to the Supreme Court -- to Zazzali's seat. Zazzali turns seventy next year, which could allow Corzine to send his incoming Attorney General, Stuart Rabner, to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice.

Democratic insiders speculate that the two leading candidates for Attorney General are the two lawyers who might be closest to Governor Jon Corzine these days: his Chief Counsel, Stuart Rabner; and First Assistant Attorney General Anne Milgram, who served as Corzine's Counsel in the United States Senate. Both are former federal prosecutors who have no real ties to the state's political establishment.

The conventional wisdom among Trenton insiders is that Rabner was headed for the Supreme Court -- especially if Corzine elevates James Zazzali to Chief Justice when Deborah Poritz retires this year. Zazzali, at age 69, would get one year as Chief before he reaches the mandatory retirement age, giving Corzine the ability to maintain the partisan balance of the court by appointing a Republican to fill Zazzali's old seat and then making Rabner Chief Justice in 2007. Rabner, who probably didn't enjoy the state budget crisis, could spend a year as Attorney General -- with Milgram waiting in the wings to replace him then.

Governor Jon Corzine is expected to nominate a new Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court sometime this summer to replace Deborah Poritz, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of seventy in the fall. Speculation still centers around Associate Justice James Zazzali, a Democrat, who would take the post until he turns seventy in 2007.

When Governor Jon Corzine returns to work next week after a grueling week-long trade mission to China, he'll enter the final stretch of the process to get his first state budget approved by the Legislature before the June 30 deadline. After that, one of the key items on the fledgling Governor's agenda will be the appointment of a new Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Deborah Poritz, who reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy on October 26, is expected to step down this summer so that her replacement will be in office when the top court convenes in the fall.

There is continued speculation that Corzine will elevate a Democratic Associate Justice, James Zazzali, to Chief, and maintain the traditional partisan balance of the Supreme Court by picking a Republican for Zazzali's seat. Zazzali, who served as state Attorney General under Governor Brendan Byrne and was named to the bench by GOP Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 2000, would serve as Chief Justice for about a year. He'll turn seventy on June 17, 2007, which would allow Corzine to appoint a Democrat to serve as Chief Justice on a potentially long-term basis.

If Corzine opts for a Republican appointment, possible candidates include Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance and state Appellate Court Judge Ariel Rodriguez.

If some political pundits are right, Lee Solomon's tenure as a Superior Court Judge maybe a short one. The word is that Solomon, named to the bench last week by Acting Governor Richard Codey, could emerge as a leading candidate for Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court when incoming Governor Jon Corzine start shopping for a Republican appointment. By tradition, Governors try to balance the partisan makeup of the state's top court.

The 51-year-old Solomon served as a Camden County Freeholder, State Assemblyman, 1992 GOP congressional candidate against Rob Andrews, Camden County Prosecutor, and since 2002, as Deputy U.S. Attorney, running the federal prosecutor's South Jersey office. Solomon was a leading candidate for a federal judgeship in 2003, but that seat went to Peter Sheridan, the Counsel to the Republican State Committee. Sheridan has not yet been confirmed, largely because his nomination has been held up by the state's two Democratic U.S. Senators, who wanted a South Jerseyan. In 2003, Andrews, along with three Democratic State Senators and ten Democratic Assemblymen -- all from South Jersey -- endorsed Solomon for that post.

Corzine's first appointment will come next summer when Chief Justice Deborah Poritz reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. Poritz is a Republican and Corzine will almost certainly name a Democratic Chief Justice. A Democrat, Justice James Zazzali, turns 70 in 2007. Corzine could elevate Zazzali to Chief Justice for a year and appoint a Republican to Poritz's seat, or he could hope that Zazzali might leave a year early. Corzine, of course, could decide that he won't be bound by a tradition of partisan balance agreed to by his predecessors fifty years ago.