New Jersey Governor: Racist judge out, homophobic judge in

Yesterday, the Corzine Administration rightly pulled a Judicial nomination when it learned the nominee had made and defended a racist statement from the bench. Bravo.

Which brings me to the outrageous part. It is stunningly disappointing that Governor Corzine would stand by another of his recent nominations - that of Municipal Court Judge Steven Zaben to be a Workers' Compensation Judge. The nomination is essentially a promotion to a more influential court (with higher pay) for a judge who has been exposed as biased toward gay defendants in a lengthy series of articles written by the Gay City News.

Zaben's even been called out for it by courts reviewing his decisions. Here's the NJ Appellate Division speaking while overturning one of his biased convictions:

An abiding sense of wrongness pervades this conviction...[referencing another decision] the municipal court excused what was clearly false testimony from the officer...Indeed, if the test adopted by the judge [Zaben] represented an adequate basis for weighing credibility, no person accused of a crime would ever be believed and no officer would ever be doubted...As a result, the conviction is not sustained.

Guess what? An abiding sense of wrongness pervades this nomination too. Even more outrageous is the fact that Governor Corzine already knows all this, as it was brought to his attention, and to the attention of then Attorney General Farber almost two years ago.

I guess some discrimination is still okay in New Jersey, as long as it's against the right kind of people.

full article