Our President Brian Brown has penned an open letter to the President of the New Jersey State Senate:
What would you think if 28 percent of the members of Congress were unelected and were making critical decisions every day affecting your taxes, health care and the environment?
How about if 28 percent of your local school board was unelected and thereby unaccountable but was crafting your district’s school budget and making curriculum decisions on what your children should learn in school?
I suspect that in both instances you would not like it very much and would try to do something about it by raising your voice.
However, that is exactly what is happening today on the New Jersey Supreme Court, where one seat is being deliberately left vacant by an obstinate Senate President and another is being compromised by a sitting Justice as a form of protest. This dysfunctional court, made so by the Senate’s inaction, is currently considering cases regarding school funding, whether internet bloggers are protected by the state’s “Shield Law” and attorney malpractice -- to name just a few.
As President of the National Organization for Marriage, I am particularly concerned about an issue that may very well soon come before this 5/7th Court: the definition of marriage. I don’t want a dysfunctional Court considering whether to change thousands of years of societal norms that value bringing men and women together in marriage to help ensure that kids have a mom and a dad. You may not share my concern about how the marriage issue will be decided but whether you are concerned about marriage, the environment, taxes, school funding or any other issue facing the state, every New Jerseyan should share my concern about what is happening on the Court.
What's the solution? Simple - the Senate should do its job:
The Senate President must immediately schedule hearings for the Governor’s nominee. The full Senate should then give her an up or down vote. It has been nearly nine months since the Governor nominated Mrs. Patterson, enough time to create an entire new human life. The Senate President has made whatever point he was trying to make last Spring and now it is way past time to fulfill his Constitutional obligation to the people of New Jersey and restore the Court to its full complement of legally appointed and affirmed justices.
Personally, I have no idea what the nominee's views are on the issue of marriage or any other issue. I do not know her judicial philosophy nor do I have evidence as to her demeanor. I do know this, however: Without a hearing, I and every citizen of New Jersey, will never know. And that is not fair.
