Barry Albin
Barry T. Albin was a judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court. He assumed office on September 18, 2002. He left office on July 7, 2022.
Governor James E. McGreevey (D) nominated Albin to the court on July 10, 2002, to succeed retiring Justice Gary Stein.[1][2] Governor Jon Corzine (D) nominated Albin for tenure in 2009.[3] Albin left office on July 7, 2022, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.[4] To read more about judicial selection in New Jersey, click here. To learn more about this retirement, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[5] Albin received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[6] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Albin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received a bachelor's degree from Rutgers College in 1973 and a J.D. from Cornell Law School in 1976. After law school, Albin worked as a deputy attorney general in the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. From 1978 to 1982, he was an assistant prosecutor in Passaic and Middlesex counties. In 1982, he joined Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer, where he became a partner in 1986.[1]
Appointments
New Jersey Supreme Court
Governor James E. McGreevey (D) nominated Albin to the court on July 10, 2002, to succeed retiring Justice Gary Stein.[1][2] The New Jersey state Senate confirmed his nomination on September 12, 2002, and he was sworn in on September 18, 2002.[1]
Governor Jon Corzine (D) nominated Albin for tenure on May 15, 2009.[3] The New Jersey state Senate confirmed his renomination on June 22, 2009.[1]
Albin left office on July 7, 2022, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.[4]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[7]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Barry
Albin
New Jersey
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Direct gubernatorial appointment - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Was a registered Democrat
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Albin donated $4,500 to Democratic candidates. He was a registered Democrat prior to 2020. He was appointed by Gov. James E. McGreevey (D) in 2002.
Other Scores:
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Albin received a campaign finance score of -0.58, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was more liberal than the average score of 0.05 that justices received in New Jersey.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[9]
State supreme court judicial selection in New Jersey
- See also: Judicial selection in New Jersey
The seven justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court are selected by gubernatorial appointment. The governor's nominee must be confirmed by the New Jersey state Senate.[10][11]
Justices serve an initial term of seven years after appointment. If renominated by the governor and confirmed for reappointment by the Senate, they may serve on the court until they reach the mandatory retirement age of 70.[10][11]
Qualifications
To be eligible to serve on the supreme court, a person must have been admitted to practice law in New Jersey for at least 10 years.[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court is selected by gubernatorial appointment. The position of chief justice is a specific seat on the court rather than a temporary leadership position.[11]
Vacancies
Vacancies on the court are filled through gubernatorial appointment. The governor's nominee must be confirmed by the state Senate.[12]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 New Jersey Courts, "Justice Barry T. Albin," accessed July 18, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 New Jersey Globe, "N.J. Supreme Court: The McGreevey and Corzine Courts," June 7, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 NJ.com, "N.J. Senate Judicary Committee approves Supreme Court Justice Albin for lifetime tenure," June 23, 2009
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 NJ.com, "Justice Barry Albin — ‘the common sense jurist’ — steps down from N.J. Supreme Court," July 7, 2022
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 New Jersey Courts, "The New Jersey Courts | A guide to the judicial process," accessed August 27, 2021
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 New Jersey Legislature, "New Jersey State Constitution 1947," accessed August 27, 2021 (Article VI Section II)
- ↑ New Jersey Legislature, "New Jersey State Constitution 1947," accessed August 27, 2021 (Article V Section I)
Federal courts:
Third Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Jersey • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Jersey
State courts:
New Jersey Supreme Court • New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division • New Jersey Superior Courts • New Jersey Municipal Courts • New Jersey Tax Court
State resources:
Courts in New Jersey • New Jersey judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Jersey
