Christie nominates gay black man, Asian to N.J. Supreme Court - video

Governor Christie’s historic nominees to the state Supreme Court — hailed by him Monday for their diversity and “pure judgment” — would join a court that is facing protracted challenges to education funding, public-worker benefits and same-sex rights.

Phillip H. Kwon, a Closter resident who came to the U.S. from Korea, would be the first Asian-American justice and the first immigrant to sit on the state’s highest court. He is an assistant attorney general with no declared party affiliation.

Bruce A. Harris, an African-American and the Republican mayor of Chatham, would be the court’s first openly gay member.

“Not only do their different backgrounds and career paths bring distinctive, important perspectives to the court, but Bruce and Phil also capture the state’s diversity,” said Christie, who drew the ire of black leaders last year when he denied tenure to Justice John Wallace, at the time the court’s only sitting African-American.

At Monday’s news conference announcing the moves, Christie said he recognized his nominees’ diversity as “a secondary factor, but a factor” in their selection. Since Democrats had made diversity a “number one concern,” the Republican governor said, it was now the Democrats’ turn to deliver what he called “swift” hearings on the nominations.

The state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, must confirm any nomination to the Supreme Court after hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Christie on Monday repeated a comment made by Senate President Steve Sweeney in May that he would aim to put any diverse nominees to a vote by March 1. “I am confident that Senator Sweeney will keep his word,” the governor said.

Sweeney, in a written statement later Monday, would only say that he would “look forward to a full and proper vetting of these nominees and to learning of how they view their role on the court.”

“As with all nominees, the process must still run its course,” Sweeney wrote. “While we undergo that process, it is vital that we ensure the court remain as philosophically independent as possible.”

Some of the state’s most vexing legal battles could be headed to the Supreme Court this year.

Lawyers for the state last year failed to convince the justices that Christie’s education cuts met the legal requirements for minimum school funding — a precedent that had been set by the court several decades ago. In his State of the State address last Tuesday, the governor signaled that he would continue to fight the court-ordered funding formula: “It is time to admit that the Supreme Court’s grand experiment with New Jersey children is a failure,” he said.

Christie’s overhaul of the state’s public pension and benefits system is also facing scrutiny by the court, thanks to a lawsuit by a judge arguing that the governor’s moves to make public workers pay more is unconstitutional when applied to jurists.

Same-sex marriage may also return to the docket this year, according to proponents of a civil case to legalize the practice statewide.

Christie said Monday that he had not asked his nominees directly about their opinions on those cases.