Recent utterances attributed to the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Leadership merit some rebuttal to be added to the public record of many competing views, no matter what may ensue, if anything, concerning the Governor’s nomination of a Chief Judge.

First addressing the merits—or lack thereof—of any challenge to the action of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it is key to note at the threshold that the Senate Judiciary Committee is not the Senate. It is a subordinate unit of the institutional body, like an arm of the anatomical whole. The Senate is the institutional entity recognized and invested by law with a specific authority embedded in a Constitution rendered from the People after ballot approval, and by statutes enacted by both plenary houses of a previous Legislature, signed into law by a Governor.