Murphy Nominates First Black Woman to N.J.’s Highest Court

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy nominated Fabiana Pierre-Louis, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, to serve on the state Supreme Court, where she would be its first black woman.

Pierre-Louis, 39, is a partner in the Cherry Hill office of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, specializing in white-collar crime and government investigations, according to the firm’s website. A graduate of Rutgers University Law School, she practiced for nine years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, serving as an assistant U.S. attorney in Newark and later as attorney-in-charge for Trenton and then Camden.

Pierre-Louis, at the announcement of her nomination in Trenton, said she was proud of helping to create the Trenton Reentry Court, which guides residents at risk of violating post-conviction supervision terms.

She is a first-generation American whose second language is English, she said, and lived in a crowded Brooklyn apartment before the family moved to the Newark suburb of Irvington. “My life is certainly not representative of the traditional trajectory of someone who one day will be nominated to sit on the Supreme Court of New Jersey,” she said.

The nomination is subject to approval from the Democratic-controlled state Senate. Pierre-Louis would replace Justice Walter Timpone, an appointee of former Republican Governor Chris Christie, who will leave the seven-member bench when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year. Pierre-Louis would be the youngest justice among the seven and the third woman.

Murphy, a first-term Democrat, referred to national outrage after George Lloyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Video of his death, as white Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee pinned Lloyd’s neck to the ground, has led to demonstrations in Newark, Asbury Park, Camden, Trenton and elsewhere about injustice toward people of color by white law enforcement. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder.

“I have not chosen Fabiana because of the current national discussion around race and systemic bias that is unfolding before our very eyes, and in our very streets,” said Murphy, adding that the nomination process begins months or years before such an announcement.

“However, given the challenges which are being brought to the forefront of our society, and the questions which will undoubtedly rise to reach our Supreme Court -- core issues of socioeconomic equality and equity -- there is no better meeting of an individual and the times,” Murphy said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.