By Thomas P. Zampino
It was with great irony last week that I viewed the unveiling of the statue for Brendan Byrne, our former governor, in front of the Essex County Courthouse.
Byrne was both the prosecutor who couldn’t be bought and a Superior Court judge in Essex County before he took the governor’s office. This was such a well-deserved honor for a man who saw his name removed from a sports arena during his lifetime so a large corporation could pay for “naming rights” to that edifice. As we drive along the Garden State Parkway, we can also see with horror that many trees have been uprooted from Brendan Byrne State Forest to make way for roadway expansion. At least, as one of last week’s speakers pointed out, they can’t change this statue because it looks like him.
One of my favorite Brendan Byrne jokes is that he realized he was no longer governor when he got into the back seat of his car and it didn’t move because there was no longer a driver.
But sadly, if he would have walked into the courthouse, he would alarmingly have found the courtrooms to be empty because there are so few judges to fill them. There are more than 50 judges required for Essex County, yet there are more than 25 vacancies that remain. In Family Court alone, where 20 judges were previously assigned, there are now eight judges for 41,000 cases.
The blockade to these appointments seems to emanate from our state senators. First allegedly, it was Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex), who proclaimed that “nothing moves in Essex” until the governor’s choice for education commissioner appeared before his Senate committee. Well, that was accomplished, yet still no movement.
Many, including some in the Governor’s Office, have targeted Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) as the cause of this blockade, which has prevented any judge from being appointed for the past four years in Essex County. The senator fires back that he is not responsible and that this falls upon the governor.
There are five senators whose districts include Essex County, and all should be held accountable. Someone has to be responsible for the stalemate.
It is time we recognize that the “blame game” volleys aimed at each other do nothing to ease the pain of our citizens who seek redress from our court system but are denied access due to these political squabbles. This separation of party has further been highlighted by the Senate Judiciary Committee refusing to pass approval to Supreme Court nominees proposed by the governor.
Our Supreme Court is sinking into the quicksand of political persuasion. Most recently, Justice Helen Hoens was withheld from nomination by the governor, not because of her qualifications — he praised her competence and decades of judicial service — but because he did not want her ravaged by those senators he called “animals” who would tear apart anyone with the scent of another political party.
In the movie “Network,” Peter Finch plays a television personality who tells viewers to yell out their window, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” We must tell our senators and the governor they must act now before this year ends to fill these vacancies and let Helen Hoens not be lost to us. There must be some compromise for her to remain in the judiciary.
Today, unfortunately, more than ever, the term “justice denied” looms over us. Let the beacon of light shine once again upon our courts. If it dims any further, it may extinguish. We must end our silence before it is mistaken for approval.
Thomas P. Zampino retired after serving 22 years as a New Jersey Superior Court judge.