As reported by nj.com, as hearings on Governor Chris Christie’s two Supreme Court nominees draw near, the state’s largest public employee unions say they are alarmed by a potential shift in the Court’s political balance, and Democrats are poring over new information about the pair.

In a letter to the Senate last week, the unions and other advocacy groups accused Christie of masking an overhaul of the Court by nominating a Republican posing as an independent, which they fear will tip the bench in the Governor’s favor on issues like school-financing and same-sex marriage. “We urge all senators to reject Governor Christie’s new partisan approach to court appointments and demand that he, like his Democratic and Republican predecessors, respect partisan balance by replacing at least one of the appointees,” the letter said.

For their part, Democrats said Monday they were looking closely at new information provided Friday by the Governor’s office on the nominees, Phillip Kwon, the first assistant state attorney general, and Bruce Harris, the mayor of Chatham Borough. Questions have arisen about the Court’s balance because kwon, who has been a registered independent in New Jersey since last April, was a registered Republican for more than a decade while living in New York.

In an unusual show of concerns, more than 30 organizations, including the AFL-CIO, CWA, New Jersey Education Association, signed the letter questioning the Court’s balance. “People need to know what they’re getting,” said Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America. “This is a court that will go forward for years and years to come.”

Since a new state Constitution was adopted in 1947, Republicans and Democrats have had an unwritten agreement that the seven-member Supreme Court would have a 4-3 political split. In the decades that followed, Republicans held the majority only twice, compared with the Democrats’ seven. But that tradition changed in 2000, when Governor Christie Whitman, a Republican, appointed Jaynee LaVecchia, an independent who had spent 12 years in Republican administrations. If Harris and Kwon are confirmed, the court will for the first time have two independent justices.

Critics of Christie contend the resulting court of three Republicans, two Democrats, and two independents, considering LaVecchia and Kwon’s Republican pasts, have five Republicans. Christie has made no secret of his intention to remake the Court, but has rejected arguments that he stacking the Court any more than his predecessors.

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Photo of Donald C. Barbati Donald C. Barbati

Donald C. Barbati is a shareholder of Crivelli, Barbati & DeRose, L.L.C. His primary practice revolves around the representation of numerous public employee labor unions in various capacities to include contract negotiation, unfair labor practice litigation, contract grievance arbitration, and other diverse issues…

Donald C. Barbati is a shareholder of Crivelli, Barbati & DeRose, L.L.C. His primary practice revolves around the representation of numerous public employee labor unions in various capacities to include contract negotiation, unfair labor practice litigation, contract grievance arbitration, and other diverse issues litigated before the courts and administrative tribunals throughout the State of New Jersey. In addition, Mr. Barbati also routinely represents individuals in various types of public pension appeals, real estate transactions, and general litigation matters. He is a frequent contributor to the New Jersey Public Safety Officers Law Blog, a free legal publication designed to keep New Jersey public safety officers up-to-date and informed about legal issues pertinent to their profession. During his years of practice, Mr. Barbati has established a reputation for achieving favorable results for his clients in a cost-efficient manner.

Mr. Barbati has also handled numerous novel legal issues while representing New Jersey Public Safety Officers. Most notably, he served as lead counsel for the Appellants in the published case In re Rodriguez, 423 N.J. Super. 440 (App. Div. 2011). In that case, Mr. Barbati successfully argued on behalf of the Appellants, thereby overturning the Attorney General’s denial of counsel to two prison guards in a civil rights suit arising from an inmate assault. In the process, the Court clarified the standard to be utilized by the Attorney General in assessing whether a public employee is entitled to legal representation and mandated that reliance must be placed on up-to-date information.

Prior to becoming a practicing attorney, Mr. Barbati served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Linda R. Feinberg, Assignment Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Mercer Vicinage. During his clerkship Mr. Barbati handled numerous complex and novel substantive and procedural issues arising from complaints in lieu of prerogative writs, orders to show cause, and motion practice. These include appeals from decisions by planning and zoning boards and local government bodies, bidding challenges under the Local Public Contract Law, Open Public Records Act requests, the taking of private property under the eminent domain statute, and election law disputes. In addition, Mr. Barbati, as a certified mediator, mediated many small claims disputes in the Special Civil Part.

Mr. Barbati received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, magna cum laude, from Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Upon graduating, Mr. Barbati attended Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2007, he received his juris doctorate, magna cum laude, graduating in the top five percent of his class. During law school, Mr. Barbati interned for the Honorable Joseph E. Irenas, Senior United States District Court Judge for the District of New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey, assisting on various constitutional, employment, and Third Circuit Court of Appeals litigation, including numerous civil rights, social security, and immigration cases.