Rell to load the benches with vicious GOP morons [Sorry, my dear, we're suing anyway :)))]
Mort Zuckerman
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Subject: Rell to load the benches with vicious GOP morons [Sorry, my
dear, we're suing anyway :)))]
Date: Mar 25, 2010 9:20 AM
Sorry, Grody Jodi and Pitbull Moody,
we're suing anyway :)))
http://www.actionlyme.org/LAWSUIT_DEARBORN_STANDARD.htm
KMDickson
http://www.actionlyme.org
http://www.relapsingfever.org
=========================================
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-ct-supreme-court-vacancy-032.artmar25,0,5749023,print.story
courant.com/news/politics/hc-ct-supreme-court-
vacancy-032.artmar25,0,5694941.story
Courant.com
RELL NOMINEES
Battle Likely Between Rell And Legislators Over Need To Fill Superior
Court Vacancies
By JON LENDER and EDMUND H. MAHONY
The Hartford Courant
March 25, 2010
Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Wednesday nominated Superior Court Judge Dennis
G. Eveleigh of Hamden to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice
Christine S. Vertefeuille — and also nominated 10 new judges to fill
Superior Court vacancies.
The 10 Superior Court nominations set up a potentially bitter conflict
between the governor and key legislators who say that the state
doesn't need the judges — and that before they confirm any new ones,
the governor must join them in addressing severe funding shortages in
the judicial branch.
The most prominent of the 10 Superior Court nominees are Public Safety
Commissioner John Danaher and state budget director Robert Genuario.
The others are Republicans Laura Flynn Baldini, Susan A. Connors and
Brian J. Leslie, along with Democrats Susan Q. Cobb, Jane B. Emons,
Kathleen McNamara and David Sheridan. Unaffiliated voter John
Carbonneau was also nominated.
The nomination of Eveleigh, 62, to the Supreme Court came quickly
after the disclosure Wednesday morning that Vertefeuille will retire
and become a senior justice effective June 1, after 10 years on the
high court. Vertefeuille, 59, gave no reason for her decision to step
down 11 years shy of the court's mandatory retirement age.
"I have every confidence in Judge Eveleigh and I am grateful he is
willing to take on the task of serving on our state's highest court,"
Rell said. "I know that Judge Eveleigh possesses these qualities and
shares my commitment to openness — and I believe the legislature will
agree."
Eveleigh, registered as an unaffiliated voter, was appointed by Gov.
John G. Rowland in 1998 and began serving as a judge in Danbury.
Senior state judges and lawyers with appellate practices reacted
positively to the appointment of Eveleigh, a middle-of-the-road jurist
who is chief administrator of the state's civil courts and who is best
known for presiding over the state court's docket of complex
litigation from 2005 to 2009.
Over his 11 years on the bench, Eveleigh has been involved in, or
resolved, some of the state's most widely known legal disputes. Among
other things, he:
•Led the investigative inquiry, or one-man grand jury investigation,
into corruption allegations against Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez. The
investigation led to the arrest of Perez, who is awaiting trial.
•Ruled that a $220 million payment from the state trash authority, the
Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, to Enron Corp. in 2001 was
an illegal, unsecured loan. Eveleigh ordered the CRRA, which was sued
by New Hartford on behalf of the authority's member towns, to pay
$35.9 million to the towns.
•Quashed a subpoena that the General Assembly issued in 2006 to former
state Supreme Court Chief Justice William J. Sullivan. The subpoena
would have required Sullivan to testify about his suppression of a
ruling to help Justice Peter T. Zarella's chances of succeeding him as
chief. Eveleigh ruled that a subpoena compelling a judge to testify
before a legislative hearing violated the constitutional separation-of-
powers doctrine, unless the legislature was engaged in impeachment or
confirmation proceedings.
•Dismissed in 2007 the final count of a lawsuit by opponents of the
West Hartford development Blue Back Square, ending a bitter and
ultimately losing battle to block the $158.8 million development.
The legislature's judiciary committee co-Chairman Michael Lawlor, D-
East Haven, and other lawmakers sounded satisfied with Eveleigh's
Supreme Court nomination.
'The Cart Before The Horse'
Lawlor, however, said the 10 Superior Court nominees are likely to be
treated differently.
He said his committee is obligated to hold hearings and vote favorably
or unfavorably on the nominees no later than seven days before the
scheduled May 5 adjournment of the legislative session.
But unless Rell agrees to legislation that relieves severe budgetary
problems — which are forcing the closing of courthouses and causing
shortages of court marshals who maintain security — Lawlor said he
expects that he and the majority of judiciary committee members will
vote to give "unfavorable" reports to the General Assembly regarding
the Superior Court nominees.
Beyond that, Lawlor said he has had enough conversations with members
of the Democrat-controlled legislature to convince him that neither
the House nor the Senate will act on any of Rell's 10 Superior Court
nominations during the current session, whether or not they are
reported out of the committee favorably or unfavorably.
Lawlor said that he is familiar with some of the 10 nominees and that
they seem to be qualified, but "we can't afford this." Each one would
cost the state about $250,000 a year, including salary and benefits,
and the $2.5 million should be used for "core" judicial functions such
as keeping courthouses open and providing security, Lawlor said.
"These nominations will not be confirmed unless the [judicial branch]
budget situation is resolved, in some way," Lawlor said. "The bottom
line is that these nominations will have to wait until we know what
the situation is at judicial."
He said the governor should not be exercising her political patronage
prerogative to hand out judgeships before addressing the budget crisis
in the judicial branch.
"The governor is putting the cart before the horse," Lawlor said.
"Step 1 is address the problems of the judicial branch." Then, he
said, after the judicial branch's budgetary needs are addressed with
legislation that the governor agrees not to block, "Step 2" would be
to "find out how many judges they really need."
Only after those first two steps should the governor have thought of
nominating judges, Lawlor said.
Rell issued a statement in reaction to Lawlor: "The appointment of
qualified judges to the bench is one of the most important obligations
we have as leaders in state government. It should not be subject to
political gamesmanship or horse-trading. You do not 'trade' judges for
something. You approve them because they are honorable, respected
professionals.
"There are 20 vacancies and I propose to fill just half of them. In
this economic climate that is a prudent and fiscally responsible
decision."
'First-Rate Judge'
The new Supreme Court nominee, Eveleigh, was considered in 2007 as a
possible nominee for chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Rell
appointed the current chief justice, Chase T. Rogers.
"I think he is a first-rate judge and will be an excellent addition to
the Supreme Court, although I have had clients who would disagree,"
said New Haven lawyer William F. Gallagher, who is considered by
colleagues as one of the state's leading appellate litigators.
While presiding over complex litigation, Gallagher said, Eveleigh
"decided cases definitively, quickly and thoroughly. His memos of
decision were first-rate analysis."
Eveleigh graduated in 1969 from Wittenberg University in Springfield,
Ohio, and was awarded a law degree by the University of Connecticut in
1972. He was an attorney in private practice before becoming a judge.
He is married to Superior Court Judge Carol A. Wolven, who is assigned
to juvenile cases in Bridgeport.
Eveleigh's daughter is married to the son of Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele.
A Rell spokeswoman said, "That played absolutely no role in this
nomination and to suggest otherwise is demeaning to Judge Eveleigh and
his distinguished career."
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
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