Gov.-elect Martin O?Malley will have the rare opportunity to quickly replace three judges on the state?s highest court, including those whose rulings favored Republicans in recent cases.
Court of Appeals Judges Alan Wilner, Dale Cathell and Irma Raker will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 in the next 18 months, leaving vacancies for O?Malley to appoint during his first term as governor.
O?Malley can revamp judicial nominating committees, which processes applications from interested judges, and can re-write judicial eligibility requirements, according to Rita Buettner, spokeswoman for the Maryland judiciary.
That?s an opportunity few governors have seized, and something O?Malley hasn?t yet considered, his camp said.
“It?s way too early to start dealing with these questions,” O?Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said Wednesday. “Questions about the Court of Appeals and other things can be dealt with at the appropriate time.”
That?s not stopping members of the local law community from speculating possible successors.
The names of chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals, Joseph Murphy; Special Appeals Judge Sally Adkins and even Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith have been suggested, though Smith spokesman Sterling Clifford said Wednesday that he is not interested.
With lawmakers still reeling from conflicts with the court ? where decisions on the public service commission and early voting appeared to favor Republicans ? observers said O?Malley could have power to construct a court more agreeable to the Democratic-controlled legislature.
Baltimore attorney C. Christopher Brown, who rates the judges? ideology based on their rulings, said Wilner and Cathell tended to rule more conservatively and Raker more moderately, according to their opinions in 2005. But each was willing to rule independently of their colleagues? decisions, he said.
“[O?Malley] has, within his appointment power, power to change the court significantly,” Brown said. But the governor?s power is limited to those who apply, said Baltimore attorney Dan Clements, noting all but one of the sitting judges were appointed by Democrats despite their apparent conservative rulings.
Clements also said applicants for the state?s highest court tend to be moderate.
“Typically, people who want to get to be judges are by their nature more middle of the road,” Clement said. “It?s a monk?s life and not everybody wants to be a monk.”
