As US Supreme Court And Trump Dismantling Proceeds, Will NJ Learn Lessons?
The NJ Constitution mandates retirement of Supreme Court justices at age 70.
Three of the current Justices are now 65 or older, which means that the next NJ Governor likely will have 3 judicial slots to fill, including replacement of current Chief Justice Rabner, who has served on the Court for 18 years (since 2007).
Curiously, Trump had 3 US Supreme Court appointments (plus many more federal District and Appellate Court appointments), an ideological reshaping of the Supreme Court made possible in part by failure of Ruth Bader Ginsberg to retire before she died in Office. So things happen.
I recently wrote about how right wing legal doctrines that have been effective in the federal Courts in terms of dismantling environmental regulations are now being deployed in State Courts.
This could be an organized strategy, similar to the Koch Brothers’ American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) attack on State legislation.
The national and NJ Democrats took big hits in the ’24 election.
Trenton politics might change dramatically around January 2026 when a new NJ Governor is sworn in – very possibly a Republican.
As we can witness with the Trump Regime’s assault, Big Things can change very fast.
If people aren’t planning for how to prevent this, then they’re bigger fools than I imagined.
Senator McKeon is quietly seeking to raise the mandatory retirement age to 72 (see SCR 46).
But that is just one small part of the larger problems we’ve seen exposed by Trump (e.g. Executive Orders, impoundment of funds, dismantling of federal agencies, firing watchdogs and thousands of civil servants and experts, scientific gag orders, et al).
A comprehensive strategy is required.
And even McKeon’s minor move (SCR 46) has been stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee for over a year and without a hearing, so Democrats have not made this issue a priority.
When will they ever learn?