Gov. Christie Nominates Two for High Court [VIDEO]

Governor Chris Christie today made two historic nominations to the New Jersey State Supreme Court with Bruce Harris, Mayor of Chatham, a lawyer with over 20 years of legal experience, and Phillip H. Kwon, First Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Law and Public Safety and former Deputy Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney has said he’d move quickly to consider Christie’s nominees if they reflect the state’s diversity. The Governor says they do.

If confirmed, Bruce Harris will become the third African-American to serve on the State Supreme Court and the first openly gay member of the Court. Phil Kwon will become the first Asian-American to serve on the Supreme Court and the first immigrant to serve since the 1947 Constitution created the Court. Furthermore, Justice Anne Paterson, nominated by Governor Christie and confirmed, created the first female majority in the history of the Supreme Court, one of only five in the nation.