Samuel Alito

HAMILTON -- Governor-elect Christopher Christie continued his post-election education theme today, appearing in front of hundreds of students at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township this afternoon. 

The suburban environment surrounding the school, which counts Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as an alumn along with two legislators who attended the assembly - state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) - provided a striking contrast to Christie's campaign stop on his first full day as Governor Elect, at the Robert Treat Academy in Newark. 

After praising the school's academic record, Christie told the students that kids in New Jersey's cities deserve the same quality.

"Those people, because of where they're born and where they live, are not getting the same education," he said. "Those kids in Trenton, Camden, Newark, Jersey City, Asbury Park - those kids deserve the same kind of education you all get in Hamilton -- at Steinert."

About half of the students gave Christie a standing ovation when he was introduced. 

Most of the assembly was taken up by a question and answer session, with students  asking Christie questions they wrote out on note cards.

A survey released by pollster Kellyanne Conway says that 94% of New Jersey's registered voters cannot name a single State Supreme Court Justice, and that the public is largely ignorant of about most aspects of the court.

The number presents an interesting juxtaposition to the political fury around the renomination of Associate Justice Barry Albin, 56.  After serving his preliminary seven year term, he is up for tenure until mandatory retirement at age 70.

In a conference call with two conservative New Jersey attorneys, Conway said that the low level of familiarity with the court "should be regarded as an opportunity, not an obstacle. They do want to know more about the court."

The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted between January 9 and 10 -- long before the nomination of Sonya Sotomayor brought some aspects of the judicial debate into the public eye.  It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38%.

Although the call was billed as a discussion of Albin's renomination, participants focused on broad judicial principles rather than Albin's specific decisions. Conway and the two others - Tom Gentile, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito when he sat on the United State Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; and Cheryl Stanton, a former special assistant and associate White House counsel to President George W. Bush - reiterated Republican legislators' calls for a longer confirmation hearing.

The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to serve as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is the secondtop court nomination since Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) joined the United States Senate in early 2006. He voted against the nomination of Samuel Alito in 2006.  The Sotomayor nomination will be eleventh Supreme Court nomination during the 25 years Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) has served in the Senate.

Lautenberg has voted yes on four Supreme Court nominations -- Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia -- and no on six: Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, William Rehnquist, and David Souter.  Lautenberg was among nine Senators to vote against Souter in 1990.  Souter's retirement created the opening for President Obama to nominate Sotomayor, who will become the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the nation's top court.

Frank Lautenberg probably didn't expect David Souter to vote with the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court when he was appointed Associate Justice by George H.W. Bush in 1990.   New Jersey's two U.S. Senators at the time, Lautenberg and Bill Bradley, were among the nine Senators who voted against the Souter nomination.

During his 25 years in the Senate, Lautenberg has participated in ten Supreme Court nominations; he has voted yes on four (Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia), and has voted no on six (Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, William Rehnquist, and Souter).

Jon Corzine voted on one Supreme Court nomination during his five years in the Senate, casting a no vote on Roberts for Chief Justice.  Bradley voted on nine top court nominations while in the Senate from 1979 to 1997, supporting Breyer, Ginsberg, Kennedy, Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor, and opposing Thomas, Souter, Bork and Rehnquist. 

U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez have asked President Obama to appoint Paul Fishman as  New Jersey's 48th United States Attorney.  Past U.S. Attorneys have included a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, a Secretary of Homeland Security, a state Attorney General, and several federal Judges.

A prediction on a rising star in North Jersey Republican politics: Morristown attorney Cheryl Stanton, who returned to the state last summer after serving in the Bush administration as Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel.  Stanton, 37, was a Law Clerk to then-U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Samuel Alito, and is now a partner at Ogletree Deakins, a national law firm with offices in Morristown. 

Stanton was a member of White House Judicial Selection Committee, where she helped evaluate candidates for federal judgeships. A Letter to the Editor she submitted to PolitickerNJ.com about the New Jersey Supreme Court is worth reading:

An unofficial legislative committee will meet in two weeks to figure out the future of the state’s Fair and Clean Elections program, the status of which is in serious jeopardy.

The bill renewing the program, which was tested as a pilot project in 2005 and 2007, was pulled from consideration in June after both the programs’ backers and detractors raised concerns about the new legislation.

Last month it was dealt an even more serious setback, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Davis v. Federal Election Commission, struck down the federal Millionaire’s Amendment, which allows out-funded candidates more leeway with campaign contribution limits. At the request of Assembly Democrats, the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS) wrote an opinion stating that the Clean Elections program’s “rescue funds” – meant to give a boost to candidates facing attacks from an outside group or a well-funded opponent who opted out of the program – would likely be ruled unconstitutional under the Supreme Court precedent.

New Jersey has not had a serious favorite son presidential candidate since Woodrow Wilson won in 1912, but that could change in the future: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a West Caldwell resident, may want to seek a future Republican presidential nomination. That’s according to New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who says “that's what friends who don't want their names mentioned are telling other friends who are telling me the man wants.”

This week's Steve Some Self-Promotion Award goes to Steve Some.  The GOP lobbyist somehow convinced a leading state newspaper to run an announcement of his reappointment to the 21-member U.S. Commission for the Preservaton of America's Heritage Abroad.  Some told the newspaper that he has been "working with Lithuania and raised over $50,000 privately to build a new memorial at the Uzupis Jewish cemetery in Vilnius" and that Associate Justice Samuel Alito will swear him in on June 6.

Tom Kean's U.S. Senate campaign took a shot at the Democratic incumbent for voting against the confirmation of Samuel Alito as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court: "Today, Bob Menendez sent his message loud and clear -- partisanship is more important than the people of New Jersey. Instead of fighting for Judge Alito, he chose to embrace the political bitterness that is dividing America." But on the same day, Kean voted against the confirmation of Zulima Farber as Attorney General of New Jersey.