Richardson to sue over judicial nominating fight

Gov. Bill Richardson will sue a judicial nominating commission from Carlsbad that has refused to recommend more than one applicant for an open district judgeship there, and he’ll be defended by Attorney General Gary King.

It’s an escalation of a fight that has been brewing since January, when the commission recommended only one candidate to Richardson for appointment to an open district judge seat. The law requires that commissions interview applicants and recommend candidates to the governor. If the governor doesn’t like the options, he is allowed to ask, once, for the commission to meet again and send him additional recommendations from the original list of applicants. He is then required to choose a judge from among those who are recommended.

The system is designed so that a bipartisan group of legal professionals weed out applicants who aren’t suited to be judges before politics enter into the picture with the appointment by the governor.

In this instance, the commission sent the name of only one – former District Judge James Richard Brown – to Richardson, though there were five applicants. Richardson didn’t like that and asked the commission for additional names. The commission met again and opted against sending other names to the governor.

Richardson argues that, unless the commission sends him at least two candidates for consideration, it is taking away his authority to appoint.

“The power of a governor to appoint means the power to choose,” Richardson said in a news release. “I cannot let the commission’s actions stand unchallenged when they fly in the face of the law.”

King agreed.

“I know the governor feels strongly about preserving his executive right to choose among qualified candidates for judgeships under our constitution,” he said. “We believe that the nominating commissions should be required to present a group of qualified candidates to the governor to preserve his authority to select the appropriate person to serve as judge.”

University of New Mexico Law School Dean Suellyn Scarnecchia, who is responsible for setting up and presiding over judicial nominating commissions, argues that the New Mexico Constitution doesn’t require that commissions send two names and doesn’t grant her the authority to reconvene a commission more than once, even when it votes to send only one candidate to the governor for consideration.

At the urging of the governor, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, has introduced Senate Bill 1075, which would require that all commissions provide at least two names to the governor for consideration.