The Western Massachusetts Governor’s Council member is calling on first-term Governor Maura Healey to take action on judicial vacancies. District 8 representative Tara Jacobs of North Adams took advantage of a rare appearance from the governor at last week’s council meeting to press her fellow Democrat on filling more than 30 empty seats in courthouses across Massachusetts. The commonwealth’s 20 superior courts are overrepresented in that number. There are almost a dozen vacancies among the roster of more than 80 justices. After Jacobs’ remarks at the July 10th gathering, Healey told the State House News Service she would deliver new Superior Court nominations “very shortly.” Healey’s office did not respond to a request for comment from WAMC. Jacobs spoke with WAMC.
JACOBS: The Governor's Council, one of the one of the main things that is on our docket to have a hand in, and something that we take very seriously, is confirming judicial nominations. And it's been very slow for us, and it's reflected in, there’s a number of vacancies across the state, including in Western Mass. In Western Mass, we have a district court opening and three superior court openings, and these vacancies are a constant churn of newly retired judges adding to the number of openings in our court. And it's felt directly in our courts that those openings create a backlog, it slows down the delivery of justice, and in Western Mass as an example, we have several of these openings are being covered currently by retired judges who are brought back on recall, and during the summer, when there's summer vacations and whatever else, we literally had superior courts in Western Mass not be able to have a sitting judge at a session, and literally, there's just been, they've had to cancel cases that were supposed to be seen because there was no judge to preside. So, it's very much felt, it's very much an urgent situation.
WAMC: Let's talk about that- What does that mean for the community when this vital part of the criminal legal system is essentially ground to a halt?
It's literally justice delayed and justice denied. Let's back up even more, because during COVID, when the court shut down for extended periods, things backed up, and we're still trying to get past the backlog that was created during COVID. It's made only worse by all these vacancies that create even more pressure and even less efficiency in in our in our ability to process the cases that are happening on a daily basis, but also the ones, some of them waiting years. It's really come to a critical time, and that's why I felt compelled, and the messages is shared and felt by all the members of council. We're all hearing from our community members, I'm hearing from judges, I'm hearing from legislators who are really concerned and want to see movement. And that's why I made the speech that I did.
Now, for those who haven't heard it, can you sort of break down what exactly you communicated to the governor at the meeting?
First off, it was a unique opportunity, because it's rare that the governor actually chairs our assemblies at council, but when the lieutenant governor is not available, the governor will, on those rare occasion that that happens, will sit and chair council's assembly, which is when we vote on confirmations and other matters. So, it was a unique opportunity to speak truth directly to power. Not like speaking it to our lieutenant governor isn't always as effective as well, but it was unique opportunity to speak it directly to our governor. And I chose to bring forward sort of a historic, similar speech that had been made in Governor's Council chambers in 1970. So, I shared a former counselor's message to the then Governor [Francis] Sargent, which was almost identical to what I wanted to say myself. So, it was just a nice call back to, this is, it's not like it's unprecedented. This has happened in our state before, but it's just as important today as it was. Then I shared a statement that had been made in 1970 that called on the governor to speed up nominations, and then pivoted to where we are today and the calls that I'm feeling today from concerned community members and judges and legislators, like I said, who are experiencing the slowdown, the bogging down of our courts because the number of vacancies that we have and communicating that it's urgent and that it’s basically a call to action to move the process of nominating judicial appointments along and bring them to council, that we are very much interested in doing this work and doing it with expediency.
What have you heard back from Healey and her administration? What was her reaction in the room? And have you heard anything since about how the administration plans on addressing these concerns?
Yeah, you know what, it was so well received. The governor, she, I think she really enjoyed hearing the historic aspect of it. Didn't know where I was going, necessarily, when I started, but no, she received it incredibly well. In the moment, in council, immediately after I concluded my statement, she shared her own, how receptive she is to the message that she hears it, and that we can expect to see nominees coming along soon and then literally, on my drive home, I received a call from chief legal counsel. The messages was not only received, but really appreciated, and that time had been slated for- Basically, the last step before nominations is candidates come and sit down with the governor and interview with the governor for her to make her final determination of who of those on the shortlist that has been sent to her she wants to nominate and send to Governor's Council for our confirmation, and a bunch of interviews have been scheduled, including some people I'm really excited about for Western Mass. So I anticipate we will receive a bunch of nominations in the coming week. The interviews that I heard about are scheduled for today and the beginning of next week. So, I look forward to getting back to work on vetting these nominees and ideally confirming someone great for Western Mass’s superior court. And ideally, the work will continue to flow a pace from this point forward.
From your perspective, what will be the final measure of the impact of this? When will we know whether or not your concerns have been really heard and addressed by the Healey administration?
Well, the conversations I've been having on the back end are that I, again, this is something that we're continually having new retirees add to the number of openings, but until we catch up, I'm going to feel that pressure, and I'm going to feel that urgency to push this message, because our courts are not overstaffed. They really aren't. There's a limited number of judges per court, and when, for instance, in superior court, superior court across the entire state has 83 judges that are legislatively allocated and funded. Right now, there's a dozen vacancies in superior court. That is like 15% vacancy, which has an enormous impact. It is felt. On top of that, and this is just an aside, there are several judges on the superior court who are, have been taking extended medical leave. Those aren't openings, those aren't vacancies, but their absence is felt and adds to the problem. And similarly, on district court, which does have significantly more judges at something like 200 and change, judges on district court, there's about a dozen vacancies there as well. And when there are vacancies and a recall judge is brought in, it has an impact on the delivery of our justice in our courts. So, until we really have gotten ahead of 30-plus vacancies that we have right now, I'm going to continue to feel that urgency, and if we start to see a real steady flow of nominations, I won't need to make a make a statement again. But I may if we're not keeping up with the numbers. We've got two more retirements about to happen in Western Mass, and so our three vacancies will turn into five if we don't get ahead of it.
