Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he is nominating two people to the state Supreme Court, including the first openly gay justice and the first Asian American.
Bruce Harris, a registered Republican and mayor of Chatham, would be the first openly gay justice and the third black justice, Christie, a first-term Republican, said today at a press conference in Trenton. Phil Kwon, who is undeclared, would be the first Asian-American justice, Christie said.
The nominations need approval from the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats. Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a West Deptford Democrat, held up Christie’s May 2010 Supreme Court nomination of Anne Patterson for a year, saying the governor’s unprecedented move to deny tenure to a sitting Supreme Court Justice, John Wallace, had politicized the court.
--Editors: Stacie Servetah, Mark Tannenbaum
To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Trenton at tdopp@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
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