The “deal” announced yesterday by Governor Chris Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney would turn back the clock and ensure that New Jersey’s Supreme Court lacks racial and ethnic diversity — even as New Jersey’s Latino, African-American, and Asian-American populations continue to grow and make up over 40 percent of the state’s population.
A Plan for New Jersey Supreme Court Without Diversity An Injustice
For Immediate Release: May 3, 2011
Contacts:
Frank Argote-Freyre, President – 908-670-0552
Christian Estevez, Executive Vice President – 973-418-7012
The “deal” announced yesterday by Governor Chris Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney would turn back the clock and ensure that New Jersey’s Supreme Court lacks racial and ethnic diversity — even as New Jersey’s Latino, African-American, and Asian-American populations continue to grow and make up over 40 percent of the state’s population.
“New Jersey’s Supreme Court should represent all of the people. This so-called deal would create a Supreme Court that makes important decisions impacting communities of color — without any representation from any of those communities,” said Frank Argote-Freyre, President of the Latino Action Network. “It erases hard-fought victories by the Latino and African-American communities to ensure representation on the Court.”
New Jersey, according to the 2010 Census, has the twelfth-highest percentage of people of color of any state, with Latinos, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans making up 40.7 percent of the state's population. Latinos are the largest minority group in New Jersey and accounted for the vast majority of population growth in New Jersey over the last decade.
Of the eleven states with higher percentages of people of color than New Jersey, all except Arizona have at least one sitting African-American, Latino, or Asian-American Supreme Court justice, according to a review of judicial websites in those states. Of the 21 other states that are less than 70 percent white, 17 have at least one sitting African-American, Latino, or Asian-American Supreme Court justice.
"With this move, New Jersey would go to the bottom of the pack, along with notoriously racially divided states like Arizona, in judicial diversity," Argote-Freyre said. "We urge the Senate to reject this deal that turns back the clock on representation of all New Jerseyans and instead work with Gov. Christie to replace Justice Rivera-Soto with another Latino justice."
New Jersey’s seven person Supreme Court had an African-American justice from 1994-2010, first Justice James H. Coleman, Jr., and then Justice John E. Wallace, Jr. Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto, who became the first Latino justice in 2004, would be replaced by Anne Patterson in the proposed deal.
The Latino Action Network is a broad, statewide coalition of Latino organizations devoted to civil rights and political empowerment.
