Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday he will nominate a former U.S. attorney to become the first black woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court, saying the state’s highest court should reflect the state’s “great diversity.”
Fabiana Pierre-Louis, a 39-year-old South Jersey attorney who was raised by Haitian immigrants in Irvington, would be only the third black justice to serve on the Supreme Court and the first in a decade.
Before that can happen, Pierre-Louis must be approved by the State Bar Association’s Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee and then be confirmed by the state Senate.
Murphy said he did not choose Pierre-Louis because of the national discussion that has erupted in the wake of the recent killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minnesota. He said this process started months ago.
“However, given the challenges which are being brought to the forefront of our society, and the questions which will undoubtedly rise to reach our Supreme Court — core issues of socioeconomic equality and equity — there is no better meeting of an individual and the times,” the Democratic governor said during a news conference in Trenton.
“Justice cannot be blind if those who sit on our highest and most powerful bench are not surrounded by colleagues who encompass the full range of the American experience, whether it be racially or generationally, or both," Murphy said.
He also stressed that Pierre-Louis “brings with her a sharp legal mind and a perspective which will be greatly beneficial to the proceedings of our Supreme Court.”
If approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate, Pierre-Louis would replace Walter “Wally” Timpone, who joined the state’s highest court in 2016.
Timpone, a Democrat appointed by former Gov. Chris Christie, will turn 70 in November. New Jersey justices and judges must retire at 70, under state law.
Pierre-Louis, a Democrat, is Murphy’s first nominee to a vacant Supreme Court seat and has the potential to be on the bench for three decades. She must serve seven years before the governor and Senate will decide whether she gets lifetime tenure.
Fittingly, Pierre-Louis was once a clerk for John Wallace, the last black justice on New Jersey’s Supreme Court — and whose 2010 ousting from the court led to a six-year battle over its makeup.
“Never could I imagine that I would be nominated to sit in the same exact seat that he once occupied,” Pierre-Louis said.
“I have spent my entire legal career in New Jersey,” she added. “It is extremely humbling to be nominated, and I am extremely enthusiastic at the opportunity to continue the proud tradition of the Supreme Court’s commitment to justice, equality and fairness.”
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Friday congratulated Pierre-Louis on her nomination, though he did not say whether she would be confirmed or when her hearing would be.
“I look forward to meeting and talking with her," Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said in a statement.
Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver said Pierre-Louis‘ appointment would mean New Jersey is no longer on a list of 33 states without a black woman on their top courts.
Oliver, who was the first black woman to serve as state Assembly speaker, said it’s appropriate this is coming as “the pain of years of systemic racism is finally being addressed.”
“We will have a justice on our Supreme Court whose lived experience will educate her peers on the bench of our highest court as they grapple with these issues," she said. "Fabiana is proof that the American Dream lives.”
Pierre-Louis thanked her parents, saying they came to the U.S. “with not much more than the clothes on their backs and the American Dream in their hearts.”
“I think they have achieved that dream beyond measure,” she said. “Because my life is certainly not representative of the traditional trajectory of someone who would one day be nominated to sit on the Supreme Court of New Jersey.”
Pierre-Louis received a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick and then a law degree from Rutgers Law School.
Later, she spent nine years working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, first as an assistant U.S. attorney and then as head of the office’s Camden branch. She was the first woman of color to hold that post.
Pierre-Louis later worked as head of the Trenton branch. There, she helped create the Trenton Reentry Court, which assisted federal offenders recently released from jail reenter society.
As a federal prosecutor, she also oversaw cases dealing with public corruption, defense contracting fraud and national security, narcotics offenses, child sexual exploitation, and allegations of racial bias by law enforcement, Murphy’s said.
Pierre-Louis now is a partner at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads in Cherry Hill.
“With practically every step, she broke new ground,” Murphy said.
The governor noted that everyone he and his team has spoken with about Pierre-Louis speaks about "her humanity, her empathy, and her character,” calling her "the kind of person who always seeks to serve others and always carries with her the pride and perspective of her own past.”
“There is simply no better set of traits that I could hope for in a nominee — especially one who has the potential to serve our residents for a generation, ensuring that the perspectives of those who our laws and courts too often ignore are given a voice on the most prominent court in our state,” Murphy added.
Pierre-Louis would ascend to the Supreme just five years after Timpone joined, ending a lengthy fight between Christie and Sweeney, the Senate president, over its makeup.
It started when Christie, a Republican, declined to nominate Wallace, a Democrat, for lifetime tenure in 2010 and vowed to reshape the court in a more conservative fashion. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, then refused to confirm Christie’s nominees to replace Wallace, and the court’s seventh seat remained vacant for six years until Timpone’s appointment.
The court is currently made up of three Democrats, three Republicans, and one independent. Pierre-Louis, if confirmed, would maintain that balance.
Murphy, who has often presented himself as a contrast to Christie and frequently reversed his policies, said Friday that “our Supreme Court must be independent." He said his administration is committed to make sure the court is “independent of politics, where decisions are made based on what is right rather than what is popular or what is needed to secure re-nomination and tenure from any particular governor.”
Pierre-Lewis would shift the gender balance of the court from five men and two women to four men and three women.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.