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Gov. Christie Will Not Renominate Justice Helen Hoens to Supreme Court of New Jersey

Per The Asbury Park Press:

"Gov. Chris Christie says he's not renominating Associate Justice Helen Hoens to the state Supreme Court, blaming Democratic senators for the current political standoff over the high court.

"Christie is instead nominating Superior Court Judge Faustino Fernandez-Vina, the assignment judge in the Camden County vicinage. He said his 20-minute, Monday morning conversation with Hoens was one of the most difficult he has had as governor but that Senate Democrats forced his hand when they telegraphed they might deny Hoens tenure as additional retribution for Christie’s 2010 decision, then unprecedented, not to renominate a sitting justice, John Wallace.

“'The conduct of the Senate has gone to an all-time low,' Christie said.

“'I watched the Democrats play hardball with Phil Kwon. I watched them play hardball with Bruce Harris and do everything that they could to ruin the professional reputations of two outstanding lawyers and public servants,' said Christie, referring to two of his Supreme Court nominees who were rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee — which was also unprecedented.

“'I simply refused to allow them to do it to a third,' Christie said. 'And so I told Justice Hoens this morning that I was not going to permit the political vengeance of the majority of the Senate to cast a pall over her otherwise outstanding judicial career. Let me be clear: Helen Hoens deserved renomination. She deserved tenure.'”

More after the jump (emphasis added)...