The State Senate yesterday voted to confirm Justice Patterson for tenure on the Supreme Court. She can now serve until age 70, the age of mandatory retirement. Her current term was to expire on September 1.
This blog endorsed Justice Patterson for tenure, as discussed here. It is good to see that Governor Murphy, a Democrat, and the Senate, which has a Democratic majority, elevated quality over partisanship in, respectively, nominating and confirming Justice Patterson, a Republican, for tenure. That action was in the best New Jersey tradition, which has been observed almost uniformly since 1948. The State Senate also set an excellent example for their federal counterparts, whose refusal even to consider President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court of the United States in 2016 was nothing less than shameful.
Congratulations to Justice Patterson!