The Judiciary Becomes An Issue

Property tax issues generally receive the most responses when voters are polled and asked what is the most important issue in the state level election.

Even this year, when voters are worried about the economy and afraid of losing their jobs, property taxes remains at the top of voters’ minds.

Yet one of the root causes of high property taxes throughout this state, the Abbott decision, and the role of the court in continuing to extend it’s power into the arena of education policy, rarely receives any attention. This year we are beginning to see some change in that picture.

The makeup of the Supreme Court of the United States was a serious issue during the 2002 Senate elections in many states where then-President Bush stumped hard for Republican candidates who would support his appointments to the highest court in the land.

Perhaps realizing how this issue galvanized conservative voters, Assemblyman Rick Merkt, and later, former Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan, have begun to address the issue of the court’s makeup in their search for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

The case is strong for conservatives to take a hard look at the first candidate up for re-nomination, scheduled for this fall, just as the general election campaign for Governor will be hitting it’s peak.

Justice Barry Albin, first appointed by then-Governor James McGreevey, will be considered by the State Senate Judiciary Committee, and perhaps the full Senate for his tenure appointment.

If confirmed, Albin could serve on the court until 2022, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.

At the time of his appointment, Albin had no judicial experience. No record whatsoever to speak of to give Senators a perspective on where he stood on the issues that might come before the Court. He was a partner in the powerhouse Wilentz law firm, which helped to bankroll the many campaigns of McGreevey, to the tune of $255,000. Earlier in McGreevey’s term, Wilentz had been chosen as the lead law firm to represent the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

Once on the Court, Albin participated and voted in favor of permitting disgraced US. Senator Robert Torricelli to be replaced on the ballot by then-retired Senator Frank Lautenberg, after the constitutional deadline for replacing candidates. Albin voted on the court to permit the state to bond without voter approval, a contorted reading of the State Constitution¹s debt limitation clause.

Most recently, Albin authored a decision, Lourdes Medical Center v. Board of Review, which allowed striking nurses to receive unemployment benefits during their work stoppage. Essentially, the decision requires the state to subsidize a union during a labor dispute, if the employer is unable to show that business suffered a substantial decline. Well, in the case of a hospital, they can’t close down a wing of the hospital, kick the sick patients out in the street, and close the emergency room for 4 hours a day to satisfy the court’s interpretation of state law passed during the Great Depression. The Court’s reading of the unemployment statutes may work for manufacturing businesses, that can measure output in units, but fails when applied to a hospital. What makes this decision even more amazing is that it so closely adheres to the strict language of the statute, something this Supreme Court is loath to do.

But enough of why the right should be opposed to the Albin tenure appointment. Some would argue that the left, particularly the advocates for same-sex marriage, have an even bigger dog in this fight.

Albin was also the author of Lewis v. Harris, which held that New Jersey could not deny committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts, then allowed the New Jersey Legislature to do just that. Courts in Iowa and Massachusetts provided same sex couples with the immediate relief they sought, and received no significant backlash from citizens.

Considering the opinion of Garden State Equality, that the Legislature’s attempt at marriage equality was a spectacular failure, one might expect GSE’s stronger supporters in the Senate make this an issue in the Senate. Senator Loretta Weinberg is uniquely positioned to take up this argument, as a member of the Judiciary Committee.

This appointment is sure to include moments of high drama in the Senate Judiciary Committee. State Senator Bill Baroni, a member of the committee, was the attorney who argued against permitting the Lautenberg for Torricelli switch. And two Republican Senators who sit on the committee call the Asbury Park Press their hometown newspaper, so count on both to make hay out of this appointment in order to score points with the local editorial board.

Even if Albin’s nomination were to fail, the biggest loser in this circumstance could be State Senator Paul Sarlo, the non-attorney chairman of the committee, who was chosen to fill the shoes of the rather erudite now Congressman, Harvard Law educated former chairman, John Adler. Look for Senator Ray Lesniak to quarterback the Democratic members of the committee if Sarlo stumbles.

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