A bunch of elected officers permitted Appeals Court Judge Gabrielle Wolohojian, the previous home companion of Gov. Maura Healey, on Wednesday for a seat on Massachusetts’ highest court docket.
Wolohojian’s elevation to the Supreme Judicial Court turned heads earlier this month due to her years-long relationship with the governor, questions on whether or not that might lead Wolohojian to recuse herself from instances involving Healey or her workplace, and the advice course of.
Members of the Governor’s Council signed off on Wolohojian’s nomination after a listening to final week the place the Appeals Court decide largely escaped questions on her previous romantic relationship with Healey.
The council confirmed Wolohojian to the court docket on a 6-1 vote.
Wolohojian was not current on the listening to however her supporters, together with Healey, have argued she is probably the most certified individual for the job having served 16 years on the Appeals Court.
Councilor Marilyn Devaney stated she has by no means seen a lot media consideration given to a court docket appointment.
“She has changed case law that is hundreds of years old,” Devaney stated. “I welcome the media. And we don’t get them. And I have been asking, please investigate our nominees. Report on them. Come to our hearings. And it doesn’t happen. And I want to welcome them.”
Councilor Tara Jacobs stated she nonetheless has considerations with the nomination course of.
“I have struggled with a sense that the process itself was lacking,” she stated.
She stated a five-person panel — which included Healey’s chief of employees and chief authorized counsel — that advisable Wolohojian to Healey lacked “diversity” and referred to as Wolohojian an “insider nominee.”
“I continue to have some concerns around her recusal situation. But I will say that I received many, many communications … and for me it has been a very mixed set of communications,” Jacobs stated.
Jacobs, who voted in opposition to the nomination, stated Wolohojian “has breathed rarified air from the time she was young”
“My perception … is she intellectualizes the marginalized communities’ struggle in a way that very much feels … detached from the struggle itself,” she stated. “I do have a concern about whether justice is best represented through that lens.”
At a listening to final week, Wolohojian defended her nomination.
“Sitting from my chair, I have done everything like every other candidate and I don’t know what else I can do, other than do the process that’s been really in place since the Dukakis administration,” she stated.
Councilor Paul DePalo stated the discourse across the nomination “jumped over” Wolohojian’s {qualifications} and as an alternative centered on a “salacious” story line. DePalo stated he was “disappointed with the public discourse” across the nomination.
“When do we stop policing a woman’s body?” he stated. “And to those who tell me that a relationship that ended years ago should be disqualifying, should I advise … my daughters not to date an ambitious person?”
Councilor Terrence Kennedy stated the one course of that counts is that which takes place amongst Governor’s Councilors, who’re tasked with vetting judicial nominees.
“The governor can nominate whomever she chooses and then it is our job to find out if that person is qualified,” Kennedy stated.
This is a growing story…
Source: www.bostonherald.com”