The Executive Council has refused to confirm Attorney General Gordon MacDonald as chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. State Counsil Rejects Attorney General.
This is the first time in my memory that the Executive Counscil has refused to confirm a justice to the Supreme Court. It is interesting that in this time of intense political bitterness how the norms of professionalism appear to have shifted. The vote was 3-2 to deny along polical lines.
In talking with a collegue who I disagree with politically, it strikes both of us how even state politics appears to be based on division and acrimony instead of getting solutions and creating consensus.
Hopefully, the judicial system is able to maintain its indepedence from the polics of the day. These days it is important that we have a branch of government that is above the fray of public opinions.
