Today, by a 7-6 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Governor Christie’s nomination of Philip Kwon for a seat on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Seven of the eight committee Democrats voted against the nomination, while one Democrat, Senator Brian Stack, and all five Republicans voted in favor of Kwon. Today’s often contentious, seven-hour Judiciary Committee hearing focused extensively on allegations of financial impropriety involving a business operated by Kwon’s family, and on Kwon’s party affiliation. Governor Christie nominated Kwon as an Independent. a status that Kwon recently took on after moving to New Jersey from New York. However, Kwon had since 2000 been registered as a Republican while he lived in New York, leading to concerns that the nomination was a subterfuge to upset the informal compact, adhered to since 1948 by Governors of both parties, of maintaining a partisan balance on the Court.
The Judiciary Committee adjourned without considering Governor Christie’s other Supreme Court nominee, Bruce Harris. There is currently no date set for a hearing on that nomination.