Eight years. By our historical temporal scale, eight years is but an instant . . . a veritable flash of light that will barely be noticed on our anthropological calendar. If, however, you are an individual — or worse yet — a family living in Connecticut and need to use the programs, activities or services of our state courts to help you resolve any sort of legal dispute, best if you're wearing a seat belt or something else because it's likely to be a bumpy ride for the foreseeable future.
Either our General Assembly was uninformed, duped, or chose to ignore the full scope of information before them. The Senate had already voted unanimously, as had the Joint Committee on Judiciary, but is it possible that all the public voices would be dismissed, individually and collectively? At this point, it would appear so as the final vote was 139 members of the House voting in favor of the resolution confirming the nomination of the Honorable Chase T. Rogers of Old Lyme to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a Judge of the Superior Court. Just 74 votes were needed for passage, and so the resolution carried. Only 6 legislators voted "Nay" (Representatives Arce, Candelara, Gonzalez, Sanchez, Tercyzak, and Carter), but even among this group, only Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, a Hartford-Democrat, rose to explain her vote in opposition.
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| The final vote as reflected on the board in the House of Representatives Chamber, 139 Yea Votes, 6 Nay Votes, 6 Absent and/or Not Voting. Only Rep's Arce, Candelaria, Gonzalez, Sanchez, Tercyak, and Carter cast Nay votes. |
The vote to consider Rogers reappointment was just one piece of business before the Connecticut House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 22, 2015. The live video coverage by CT-N can now be viewed on demand as part of their archive. To view the relevant portion, advance the below video to the 01:32:55 time mark, you will see and hear remarks from Rep. William Tong (Stamford, also co-chair of the Judiciary Committee), Rep. Rosa Rebimbas (Naugatuck), Rep. Terrie Wood (Darien, Norwalk), Rep. Devin Carney (Old Saybrook, Lyme, Old Lyme, Westbrook), and closing with opposition by Rep. Minnie Gonzalez (Hartford). The votes were cast and the clerk reads the tally, and just 23 minutes after the resolution had been called, it was all over. Resolution adopted at 01:55:48. Another 8 years . . . unless, of course, people in certain positions, both state and federal, actually step up and do their job as awkward and career-limiting as it might seem. We shall see!
It was a political vote. Simple as that. We just need to keep bringing to their attention the problems that exist.
ReplyDeleteOverheard two opposing counsel on an elevator recently complaining about a particular judge. So I sat in their case to see if their complaints had any legitimacy to them. Oh boy did they. Interestingly enough the judge treated everyone before her that day in the same manner. That is until a very influential attorney stepped in and said she wasn't ready despite the matter being marked ready. The judge's demeanor though completely changed before this lawyer. The judge was somewhat deferential.
So there appears to be a hierarchy in the court system with influential lawyers at top, non-influential in the middle and self represented all the way on the bottom.