Holly Schepisi (R-River Vale) is a fairly conservative Republican woman representing a suburban New Jersey district. Even if you didn’t know anything else about her, Save Jerseyans, in the year 2021 that biographical snippet qualifies a politician as worthy of a closer look in light of the GOP’s difficulties regaining a foothold in dense, affluent, educated suburbans enclaves where it used to romp on election day.
Articulate, measured, and willing to throw down with legislative Democrats on issues ranging from affordable housing to vote by mail, she could be a future gubernatorial possibility. She might even warrant a serious look from Team Ciattarelli this cycle for his lieutenant governor running mate though, having just made it to the State Senate after a close committee vote with her former running mate, she would likely be reluctant to take another leap into the unknown.
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Assemblywoman Schepisi could take off like a rocket in the years ahead.
She already faces a huge pre-launch decision (and she hasn’t even been sworn in to the Senate yet): how to vote on the nomination of Rachel Wainer Apter. And it’s a biggie.
Some brief background on Senate nominations is required.
Just like at the federal level, New Jersey state-level court nominations filed by the governor are subject to the advice and consent of the State Senate. The first potential hurdle before the process even gets underway with meetings and hearings is “senatorial courtesy.”
“Senatorial Courtesy, much like the Loch Ness Monster, gathers huddled masses to discuss its presence, but it is rarely seen,” opined former State Senator Kevin O’Toole, a former Judiciary Committee member, in an op-ed discussing the unwritten practice. Long story short, a state senator can indefinitely block a nominee who resides in his or her district and/or home county without offering a formal explanation. You won’t find this extraordinary power anywhere in the state constitution but it’s a very real thing.
Apter – who Phil Murphy nominated to the N.J. Supreme Court on Monday – falls within Senator-elect Schepisi’s borders. She can end Apter’s nomination journey should she choose to do so.
She really, really should.
Apter (who clerked for the notorious RGB) isn’t just another “progressive.” She’s an ACLU attorney. A hardened radical; there’s no other variety. She was involved in the Colorado bake shop case. She fought the Trump Administration over DACA and religion exemptions for employers who don’t want to pay for contraception. Her values are reflective of places INSIDE New Jersey (like Montclair), but she’s far to the left of your average New Jersey voter, and lately that’s really saying something.
During Monday’s announcement presser, the nominee assured gathered media that she has “never focused only on laws or systems” but rather ”the individual lives that laws and systems are meant to serve but can so often harm.” So you don’t need me to pass judgment on her bio, folks. Apter is telling you that she has no interest in applying the law to facts and letting the chips fall where they may. She’s an activist (all ACLU attorneys are activists), and Apter wants to accomplish what the N.J. Supreme Court does so well: make law.
Apter will undoubtedly make law on affordable housing mandates, an issue where Schepisi has distinguished herself as a voice in opposition to the state supreme court imposing arbitrary and economically ruinous regulations on New Jersey municipalities.
Apter is part of a larger Murphy project. The current court is 3-3-1 (three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent). You wouldn’t know it by how it rules, of course, but it’s evenly divided based upon party registration. We don’t know Apter’s party registration but the ALCU affiliation guarantees that she’d rule like a Democrat. Jaynee LaVecchia is an independent appointed by Whitman. Replacing her with a 40-year old (Apter) – coupled with Murphy’s last appointment (a Democrat, Fabiana Pierre-Louis) who is also only 40 years old – transforms our state’s high court for a generation. Both of these ladies could serve for 30 years until the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70.
And there’s more. If Murphy is reelected in November? He’ll get to replace Barry Albin (who turns 70 next July) next summer with another super-young, far-left nominee.
Schepisi, an attorney, can immediately transform herself into a statewide Republican rockstar by stopping this nomination in its tracks. Republican voters and plenty of non-Republicans tired of the same old nonsense in Trenton have been thirsting for someone to stop Phil Murphy in his tracks on SOMETHING.
This opportunity to do just that got served up to Schepisi on a silver platter.
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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing attorney at the law firm of DeMichele & DeMichele in Haddon Heights (Camden County).
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