Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court nominee Elizabeth “Bessie” Dewar isn’t a choose, has by no means been a choose, and is just too younger for her age to go with out point out or dialogue, a number of members of the Governor’s Council informed the excessive court docket nominee.
Despite these {qualifications}, throughout a listening to on her appointment to the state’s prime judicial physique held on Wednesday, Dewar’s outstanding profession as an legal professional, legislation clerk, and state solicitor appeared sufficient to persuade the eight elected members of the manager council that Gov. Maura Healey’s choose for the submit is an efficient one.
“You have to tell me…why I’m going to vote for someone who was three years old when I started practicing law — so help me out with that — and who has never been a judge?” Councilor Terry Kennedy requested.
“I’m already voting for you,” Kennedy instantly added. “But answer the question anyway.”
Dewar, 43, was nominated by Healey after Justice Elspeth Cypher introduced she would retire early in 2024. If her nomination is profitable – as her cordial reception appeared to point would be the case – she’ll have the ability to sit on the court docket for almost 27 years earlier than she reaches the obligatory retirement age of 70.
She mentioned the questions on her age are “absolutely fair.”
“I thought about this question a lot myself in considering whether to apply when this opportunity unexpectedly came up,” Dewar mentioned. “I thought that I wanted to serve and that I would bring to the court a lot of relevant experience that could help the court, and so I applied.”
The selection of whom to nominate to the state’s highest court docket is without doubt one of the most consequential a governor is tasked with making, Healey mentioned throughout the about seven minutes of testimony she supplied to start out the listening to. After working with Dewar throughout her time because the Attorney General, Healey mentioned the state solicitor has a “fierce intelligence” and that she was a “trusted counselor.”
“I’ve had the privilege to work closely with her – in the trenches, so to speak,” Healey mentioned. “I can tell you, from professional and personal experience, what a tremendous asset this nominee will be to our court.”
Besides the governor, three others spoke in favor of Dewar’s candidacy, two legislation colleagues and a member of the Attorney General’s workplace workers: long-serving receptionist Gen Teixeira.
Dewar, an admittedly nervous Teixeira informed the Council, is the sort of one that all the time presents different folks “acknowledgment.”
“I find her honest, kind, and respectful,” she mentioned. “Would I find her impartial and fair? Yes; and I would add authentic and amazing. I think the Commonwealth, the citizens of Massachusetts, deserve a Bessie Dewar.”
Besides a person who informed the Governor’s Council he would testify towards Dewar’s appointment to the court docket however as a substitute spoke principally towards the SJC itself, decrying its obvious incapacity to handle his issues round joint custody legal guidelines, none spoke towards the state solicitor becoming a member of the court docket.
Several councilors, although they didn’t vote at Wednesday’s assembly, mentioned outright that they supposed to approve her appointment. A vote on Dewar’s nomination may happen as quickly as subsequent week.
Dewar was a legislation clerk in any respect three ranges of the federal judiciary, together with at one level for former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. She’s labored as an appellate and trial lawyer and as a civil rights advocate.
She’s been state solicitor since her appointment to the function by then Attorney General Healey in 2016, the place she advises the AG’s workers on when to enchantment court docket choices and when to file amicus briefs, doing a lot of her work with the SJC.
Her nomination was introduced after Healey fashioned a Supreme Judicial Nominating Commission in the hunt for new jurists to exchange two of the court docket’s seven members, each of whom are retiring. Applications are nonetheless being accepted to fill the seat quickly to be vacated by Associate Justice David Lowy.
Dewar, a Jamaica Plain resident and mom of two, is a graduate of Harvard University, Yale Law, and Cambridge College.
Herald wire companies contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”