Virginia Long

Click on this image to enlargeOnly in New Jersey can a lawyer tout his marriage to a Supreme Court Justice on his law firm's website as way of drumming up legal work. Jonathan Weiner, a partner at Fox Rothschild, a large and politically active law firm with a government affairs and gaming law practice, notes in his official biography that his wife, Virginia Long, is an Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court with lifetime tenure. Weiner is also the general counsel of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, and rather amazingly, notes that “he was recently re-appointed by the Supreme Court of New Jersey to a second two-year term on its Civil Practice Committee.”

New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Virginia Long has four years left before she reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy, but there is some speculation in higher echelon political circles that she will retire early – opening up another Supreme Court appointment for Gov. Jon Corzine before he seeks re-election in November 2009.  Long turns 70 in March 2012.

Less than seven years after leaving office, the so-called Whitman Court has virtually disappeared.  Of the six Supreme Court appointments made by Christine Todd Whitman during her seven years as Governor, only two -- Virginia Long and Jaynee LaVecchia -- are expected to remain in office when the next court session begins this fall.  James Zazzali, whom she named as an Associate Justice in 2000, reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy in October. 

New Jersey Lawyer's Bob Seidenstein is reporting that Governor Jon Corzine will elevate Associate Justice Virginia Long to replace James Zazzali as Chief Justice.  Seidenstein lists state Public Advocate Ronald Chen as her replacement.

State Senator Thomas Kean, Jr. did not prepare any advance questions for a hearing on the confirmation of Virginia Long to the New Jersey Supreme Court, according to a spokesperson for his campaign. Kean, who switched from the Senate Appropriations Committee to Judiciary this year, and GOP State Senator Robert Martin joined the seven Democrats on the panel to support Long's confirmation. The other two Republican Senators on Judiciary, Gerald Cardinale and Joseph Kyrillos, voted no.

The Kean campaign's Jill Hazelbaker argues strongly that the GOP State Senator was well prepared. "He doesn't have to have typewritten questions," Hazelbaker told PoliticsNJ.com. "He had four major areas of questioning that he wanted to hear answers from the Justice on: the switcheroo (Torricelli/Lautenberg), Abbot vs. Burke, Lance vs. McGreevey and her judicial philosophy and temperament."

Long, a Democrat who served in Governor Brendan Byrne's cabinet in the 1970's, was appointed to the Supreme Court by GOP Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1999. If the full Senate votes to confirm her, she will serve until she reaches the mandatory retirement age of seventy in June 2012.