Governor Christie announced today that he was nominating Robert Hanna and Judge David Bauman to fill the two Supreme Court seats now occupied by temporarily-assigned judges of the Appellate Division. Hanna, whom the Governor announced is a political independent, is currently the Director of the Board of Public Utilities. Before that, he served as Director of the Division of Law and an Assistant United States Attorney.
Judge Bauman currently sits on the Superior Court, Monmouth County, where he is Presiding Judge, Civil. He was appointed to the Superior Court in 2008 by Governor Corzine. A Republican, Judge Bauman was also a prosecutor in the Naval Investigative Service.
Both nominees have big-firm backgrounds. Hanna was a partner at Gibbons in Newark, and Judge Bauman was a partner at Bressler Amery & Ross in Florham Park.
The Governor’s last two nominees to the Court, Philip Kwon and Bruce Harris, were both rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It remains to be seen when the current nominations will be taken up.