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Fabiana Pierre-Louis, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, is on track to become the first Black woman to sit on New Jersey’s highest court, serving at a time when the state and the country remain deeply divided over racial and economic injustice.
Ms. Pierre-Louis, 39, will also be the only Black judge currently seated on the New Jersey Supreme Court and, as its youngest member, could serve for as many as three decades.
A former assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Ms. Pierre-Louis was nominated by Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, to the post in June, as protesters across the nation, outraged by the death of George Floyd while in police custody, were demanding criminal justice reform.
The State Senate’s Democrat-led Judiciary Committee confirmed Ms. Pierre-Louis’s nomination on Monday at a hearing where lawmakers noted the groundbreaking nature of her appointment, as well as her potential to shape the court’s decisions for the next 30 years.
Ms. Pierre-Louis, who grew up in working-class Irvington, N.J., said in an interview soon after her nomination that she was aware her background would play a role in the way she approached cases.
“Having a perspective and understanding of what it is like to live in Irvington, or other places,” she added, “it just informs how you experience many things in life.”
Ms. Pierre-Louis, a partner at a private law firm who lives with her husband and their two young sons in Mount Laurel, N.J., spoke Creole before she learned English.
She moved as a child from Brooklyn to Irvington, a northern New Jersey township just west of Newark, where her family bought a house. Her father owned and drove a cab, she said, and her mother transported patients at a New York City hospital.
Mr. Murphy has reappointed two sitting justices, but Ms. Pierre-Louis is his first nomination to the high court, which has not had a Black justice since former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, refused in 2010 to extend the term of John E. Wallace Jr.
As a young graduate of Rutgers Law School in Camden, N.J., Ms. Pierre-Louis worked as a law clerk for Justice Wallace. She noted during the hearing that he remained a mentor.
Ms. Pierre-Louis, who called the nomination the “honor of a lifetime,” would replace Justice Walter F. Timpone, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 later this year.
It is not her first time breaking barriers. As an assistant federal prosecutor, she was the first woman of color to hold the posts of attorney-in-charge in both the Camden and Trenton offices of the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
She said her humble upbringing and immigrant roots had shaped her point of view. “It’s part of who I am,” she said. “It’s part of my identity.”
Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he originally thought Ms. Pierre-Louis was too young for the position, being at least 20 years younger than the next youngest person on the bench.
But, he said, interviews and a background check convinced him that she was more than prepared.
“I haven’t found one person to say one thing negative about this nominee,” Senator Scutari said, “and that is hard.”
*Culled from the New York Times
