Murphy picks civil rights attorney, former Ruth Bader Ginsburg clerk to join N.J. Supreme Court – NJ.com

Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday he will nominate a civil rights attorney and former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to become the newest justice on New Jersey’s Supreme Court.

Rachel Wainer Apter, 40, director of the state Division of Civil Rights and formerly an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, was fittingly introduced during a ceremony at Rutgers-Newark’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall — on what would have been Ginsburg’s 88th birthday. Ginsburg was once a law professor at the school.

“In the words of Justice Ginsburg, ‘Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.’” Murphy said. “In every aspect throughout her career, Rachel has lived these words.”

“At this time in our history, when state courts have never mattered more, the New Jersey Supreme Court’s long-held reputation for judicial independence and sound decision making takes on new and urgent importance,” the governor added. “I know that Rachel will add to the court’s legacy.”

Wainter Apter is the second person Murphy, a first-term Democrat, has chosen to become an associate justice on the state’s highest court.

His first pick, Fabiana Pierre-Louis, joined the bench last year as the first Black woman to serve on the court in New Jersey history.

Wainer Apter, a Democrat, would replace outgoing Justice Jaynee LaVecchia, an independent who announced last week she’ll retire at the end of August.

But first, Wainer Apter needs to be approved by the State Bar Association’s Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee and then be confirmed by the Democratic-controlled state Senate.

Wainer Apter said serving on the state Supreme Court is “the most important trust that can be placed in a lawyer in this state.”

“The cases that the Supreme Court hears concern issues of fundamental importance to the state and to all of us as individuals, including how our society will live up to the promise of equal justice under the law,” she said. “The New Jersey Supreme Court also has a distinguished tradition of independence, fairness, and integrity. I would be honored to be able to continue that tradition.”

Her nomination comes as Murphy runs for re-election in November. It also gives him the chance to have placed two justices on the seven-member court — both women 40 or younger — who could serve for decades until the mandatory retirement age of 70. Apter is only a few weeks older than Pierre-Lewis.

But uncertainty hangs over her confirmation. Because Wainer Apter is an Englewood resident, four state senators from Bergen County have senatorial courtesy over the pick — meaning they can stop the nomination from advancing.

One of the four is a Republican: Holly Schepisi, a state assemblywoman who was recently chosen to replace the late Gerald Cardinale in the Senate. Schepisi could block the nomination — which is possible in an election year.

She told NJ Advance Media on Monday that it’s “premature for me to give any sort of comment” but noted that she will meet with Wainer Apter.

“I have a lot of homework to do,” Schepisi said. “I think it’s gonna be really important to sit down and understand everything from her courtroom experience to positions, neutrality as a judge versus activism.”

Wainer Apter, who grew up in Rockaway, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004 and was a law clerk for Ginsburg from 2011-12.

She stressed Monday she has focused her career “addressing systemic inequality,” including cases related to equal rights, discrimination, voting rights, and the rights of people with disabilities.

Wainer Apter worked for the global law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and then the ACLU, where she worked on a high-profile case in which a Colorado baker refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. The ACLU supported two men who were refused service. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the baker in 2018.

Wainer Apter worked on Murphy’s transition team shortly after he was elected in 2017 and then was counsel to state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, notably leading the state’s case to preserve the DACA immigration program.

Currently, she runs the state’s Division on Civil Rights, the agency that aims to protect civil rights for all residents in New Jersey.

Wainer Apter recalled Monday how her great-grandparents fled anti-Semitic persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe “and came to the United States in search of freedom.” As a child, she said, learning about the Holocaust had a tremendous impact on her. She said read only stories about the atrocity and had “vivid dreams” that she was living during that period.

“That gave me a strong sense of how fortunate I was to live in this time and place, but it also impressed upon me the horrors that can come from dehumanization, when one person deems another person as ‘other’ or denies their humanity,” said Wainer Apter, a mother of three.

She noted her admiration for Ginsburg’s central belief in “the equality and dignity of all people — that everyone should be able to dream, to achieve, and to set the course of their own lives without barriers based on race, religion, nationality or ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.”

Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver said Wainer Apter has “dedicated her professional life to protecting others from those grave threats to their liberties.

“She has been a champion for all New Jerseyans,” Oliver added.

If Wainer Apter is confirmed, it would shift the makeup of the state Supreme Court from three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent to four Democrats and three Republicans.

Both Democratic and Republican state lawmakers praised Murphy’s pick.

State Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, called her “part of the best of New Jersey.”

State Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean, praised her for combating anti-Semitism online in his county and said he has ‘no doubt that Rachel will seek to protect our constitutional liberties and freedoms on our state’s highest court.”

State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, said Murphy “made a fine nomination.”

NJ Globe was the first to report Wainer Apter’s impending nomination.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.