Gov. Maura Healey nominated state Solicitor Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar to serve on the state’s highest court docket Friday, clearing certainly one of two Supreme Judicial Court picks the governor was handed this yr.
Dewar will fill outgoing Justice Elspeth Cypher’s seat, who plans to retire on Jan. 12, 2024 after serving as an affiliate justice on the Supreme Judicial Court for practically seven years.
Healey stated Dewar is a “consensus builder who has significant experience working with the Supreme Judicial Court and also a deep passion for the important work that the court does.”
“She is a true student of the institution, and I am confident that she is the right person to fill this seat in this pivotal moment for the court,” Healey stated in a press release.
All seven members of the court docket had been chosen by former Gov. Charlie Baker, stretching again to Associate Justices Frank Gaziano and David Lowy, whose oaths had been administered days aside in August 2016.
Advocates shortly praised Healey’s nomination of Dewar to the court docket.
Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder stated state supreme courts play an important function in defending reproductive rights, “and that has never been more true than in a post-Dobbs America.”
” As state solicitor, Elizabeth Dewar has constantly led efforts to advance reproductive fairness inside Massachusetts’ borders and fight anti-abortion assaults throughout the nation. Bessie performed an integral function within the Attorney General’s workplace, authoring briefs in opposition to Texas Law SB8, the Texas six-week abortion ban and bounty hunter regulation,” Holder stated in a press release.
Dewar briefly served as appearing legal professional normal this yr when Healey transitioned out of the workplace to turn into governor.
Dewar was chosen as Massachusetts’ second state solicitor in 2016. She supervises the briefing and arguing of appeals by attorneys all through the Attorney General’s workplace in state and federal courts and advises the legal professional normal on whether or not to enchantment opposed selections.
Most of Dewar’s appellate work is within the Supreme Judicial Court, Healey’s workplace stated, together with reviewing dozens of briefs filed with the court docket, advising on issues pending within the Appeals Court, and monitoring some instances taken by the court docket.
She beforehand labored as a lawyer for Ropes & Gray, was a civil rights advocate on the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and served as a regulation clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.
Dewar, a Jamaica Plain resident, graduated from Harvard College and the Yale Law School and has a grasp’s diploma from the University of Cambridge.
Healey may also want to pick a alternative for David Lowy, who introduced in November that he plans to retire in February 2024.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”