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Justice Helen Hoens, a Republican, has been on the bench for 20 years. Her judicial career will come to an abrupt end in October amid the wrangling between Gov. Chris Christie and Senate Democrats.

(John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — In a stunning move that roiled New Jersey's legal community, Gov. Chris Christie announced Monday he will not nominate Justice Helen Hoens for lifetime tenure on the state Supreme Court, cutting short her judicial career amid an increasingly bitter war with Democrats in the state Senate.

At a hastily-called news conference in Trenton, Christie instead introduced Superior Court Judge Faustino Fernandez-Vina, the top state judge in Camden County, as the person he hopes will fill Hoens's seat when her current seven-year term expires in October.

Christie, a Republican, praised Hoens and her 20-year judicial record, but said the Democrats who control the state Senate were sure to tank the Republican justice’s nomination and tarnish her good name. He said that’s what happened when they rejected two of his previous nominees.

"I simply could not be party to the destruction of Helen Hoens’s professional reputation," Christie said. "I was not going to let her loose to the animals."

Fernandez-Vina, a stout, 61-year-old judge born in Cuba, checks almost every box on the Democrats’ wish list, Christie said.

"He gives us South Jersey representation on the court, he gives us Hispanic representation on the court, adding toward diversity, and he gives us a wealth of experience both as a civil trial attorney in the courtroom and as a judge who has overseen dozens and dozens of trials," Christie said. He noted Chief Justice Stuart Rabner named Fernandez-Vina the head judge in Camden County in 2012 and this year appointed him to lead a committee on overhauling the civil court system.

In a statement Monday, Hoens said she was grateful for her two decades on the bench but "saddened" that she wouldn’t be able to continue. She said she strived "to approach each and every matter with an open and unbiased mind, to treat each litigant before the court with dignity and respect, to temper each decision with patience and compassion, and to apply the law as I understood it both faithfully and fairly."

"I am content, therefore, to let history judge me based on the body of work that I have had a part in creating," Hoens said.

Hoens is the second justice to be shown the door by a governor since the modern court was established in 1947 — and both actions were taken by Christie. In 2010, Christie also declined to renominate Justice John Wallace Jr., a Democrat and the court’s only black member.

The move touched off a years-long standoff between the Republican governor and Senate Democrats, who have only confirmed one out of Christie’s previous five nominees to the court in retaliation. In May, Justice Barry Albin, a Democratic appointee who has tenure, gave a speech decrying the politics seeping into the renomination process and urged the public to defend judges and justices from political attacks.

"It’s a standoff that can’t be allowed to continue," said former Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean. "I’m sad about it because people who have served well in the Supreme Court deserve renomination."

Representatives of the legal community said Christie’s decision on Hoens only makes the problem worse.

"The rhetoric here smacks of political one-upsmanship — and will continue the slippery slope we began traveling when the governor made the then unprecedented move of not renominating Justice Wallace," said Ralph Lamparello, president of the state Bar Association. "(Hoens’s) opinions were thoughtful and well-reasoned, and she always conducted herself with the utmost professionalism. She does not deserve to be treated as a political pawn in the battle between the governor and the Legislature over our courts."

In Hoens, Christie had a reliable vote inside a state Supreme Court that has pushed back on some of his biggest plans.

A well-regarded, right-of-center jurist, Hoens routinely voted with the minority in recent years to support Christie’s most controversial moves to reduce the state’s school funding and affordable-housing obligations.

Known for her self-effacing humor and her expertise in New Jersey’s complex zoning laws, Hoens was appointed to the state Superior Court in 1994 by Republican Gov. Christie Whitman and as a Supreme Court justice in 2006 by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine. She is married to Robert Schwaneberg, Christie’s health-care adviser and a former Star-Ledger reporter.

"She’s thoughtful, she’s sensible, she is a great writer, and she is exactly the kind of person to whom we should be happy to repose the obligation of deciding the fate, the lives and the fortunes of our fellow citizens," said retired Justice Virginia Long, who served with Hoens until recently. "She’s just a wonderful, wonderful, judge and it’s a great loss. That’s all I want to say."

Christie said he may have started the war with his decision on Wallace, but blamed state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), a veteran lawmaker who sits on the Judiciary Committee, for escalating it last month when he told The Star-Ledger that Democrats should quash Hoens’s nomination as payback for Wallace.

"Given everything they’ve done before, and the very bold and arrogant announcement by Senator Lesniak, I had to take them at their word," Christie said. "What the ramifications would be for that going forward, they should have thought about before opening their mouths."

Lesniak said Christie was giving him "way too much credit."

"I was serious about my position, but I’m one member of the Judiciary Committee. I can’t speak for the rest of the members," Lesniak said. "I think it would have been a real battle, but I haven’t seen the governor shy away from battles in the past. It’s strange that he’s now becoming wobbly."

A spokesman for Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) declined to comment.

Ronald Chen, dean of Rutgers Law School in Newark, said Christie and the Democrats have now taken their feud "to the absolute limit" and are on the verge of paralyzing the state’s highest court.

"Unless both of them bend a little bit, and come to some sensible comrpomise, we’re going to have an absolutely untenable situation in our state Supreme Court," Chen said. "I was very surprised and saddened. I know Justice Hoens myself, and she is an exemplary jurist."

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