Justice Albin: Protect Our Courts from Politics

Barry Albin, Associate Justice
Supreme Court of New Jersey

Gavel Grab » New Jersey Judge: Protect Our Courts from Politics:
At the New Jersey State Bar Association's annual meeting in (of course) Atlantic City,  Associate Justice Barry Albin delivered a strong speech about the importance of protecting impartial courts from political influence. He called on the public to protect judges from the government’s other two branches.

Justice Albin, a target of Governor Chris Christie, appeared to address some controversies involving Christie, although he did not actually name the governor.

“When one judge is punished for issuing an unpopular decision, other judges take notice and may be less inclined to invite controversy, perhaps at the expense of the fundamental rights of some disfavored group,” Justice Albin said, according to a (Newark) Star-Ledger article. “A judge should not be concerned about whether doing justice is a bad career move.”

In 2010, Christie, a Republican, refused to reappoint Democratic appointee Justice John Wallace Jr. (see Gavel Grab). It was the first time a New Jersey governor did not reappoint a justice who had sought it since the state constitution was rewritten 63 years earlier, and it provoked a mass resignation of his judicial advisory council and widespread charges that the newly-elected governor was jeopardizing judicial independence.

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