The downside with Gov. Maura Healey nominating her ex as a Supreme Judicial Court justice shouldn’t be that it got here from a small rubber-stamp panel – the issue is the thorny moral questions the nomination raises.
What was the timeline for when Healey selected nominee Gabrielle Wolohojian?
When did Healey first have conversations with Wolohojian about becoming a member of the SJC?
Was the nomination a part of some type of deal Healey labored out as she and her accomplice had been going by way of a contentious breakup?
Was any ethics opinion sought on the nomination and the place is it? Regardless of whether or not Healey was apprehensive that the nomination was above board, she nonetheless ought to have gotten moral clearance first. State ethics legislation says to keep away from even an “appearance” of a battle of curiosity.
When will Wolohojian must recuse herself from making a ruling involving the governor’s workplace for a battle of curiosity?
Will anybody on the rubber-stamp Governor’s Council have the center to ask these robust questions?
No one is contesting Wolohojian’s credentials or expertise as a jurist. She has a lot.
And for a lot of a long time, governors have been placing folks on the SJC who’ve shut private ties to them. From Gov. William Weld to Gov. Charlie Baker, it’s widespread for chief executives to choose buddies for SJC spots. If you don’t have political connections you don’t get the appointment.
And Weld and Baker relied on a large circle of panelists to serve on their nominating committees, a lot wider than Healey’s five-person group.
But that didn’t appear to matter as a result of all of them relied on cronyism to make their picks. Was there a nationwide seek for Robert Cordy? Or David Lowy? No, the dimensions of the nominating panel makes no distinction.
But that is the primary time we all know of {that a} governor has appointed an ex-romantic accomplice to the excessive courtroom with whom she had a breakup. It was equal to a divorce.
So the moral questions the nomination raises are important. Just don’t rely on the lame Governor’s Council to ask them.
When’s the final time the council rejected an SJC appointment? Quite a lot of councilors are attorneys who argue circumstances earlier than judges so it’s not shocking that they rubber-stamp the candidates.
But somebody must ask the tough moral questions earlier than it’s too late. And Healey herself must be pressured to reply them.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”