Christie’s next challenge: A constitutional crisis in New Jersey

Christie refused to reappoint Jersey supreme court justice John E. Wallace. It is totally within his rights as governor not to reappoint a justice, but it has never previously happened in New Jersey history.

In response, the chief justice, Stuart Rabner, a Democrat, not only blasted Christie’s move to nominate a new justice for the court — he appointed a justice of his own as an interim one …. not clearly within his constitutional rights.

So yesterday, another justice on the court, Roberto A. Rivera-Soto, appointed by former Democratic governor Jim McGreevey, issued an opinion calling the chief justice’s move unconstitutional and announcing that he refuses to vote until the interim justice, an appellate judge, is gone.

One another justice has said that she has “grave reservations,” according to the New York Times, about the interim judge’s presence on the court, but wouldn’t go as far as Rivera-Soto.