One theme came up again and again in recent public forums that the Vermont Judiciary held statewide on diversity, equity and inclusion in the courts, said Rep. Barbara Rachelson, D-Burlington: People weren’t seeing judges who looked like them.
Rachelson was speaking on the floor of the Vermont House Tuesday, urging her colleagues to support a bill intended to broaden the pool of people applying to be judges in Vermont, with an overarching goal of having more diverse judges and other officials on superior courts and the state Supreme Court.
H.780 would make a slate of changes to the process by which state officials fill a vacant judicial position, which starts with an 11-member body of lawmakers, lawyers and other officials called the Judicial Nominating Board gathering a list of potential candidates.
Once the nominating board has one or more applicants it considers “highly qualified,” it sends the names to the governor, who then selects one for confirmation by the Senate.
The board has seen a drop in applicants in recent years, Thomas Zonay, Vermont’s chief superior court judge, told House lawmakers late last month. Rachelson noted that trend has coincided with high levels of turnover on the bench.
House lawmakers passed H.780 on a voice vote Wednesday afternoon.
The bill would establish a process by which members of the public could nominate someone to be considered for a judicial appointment, which Rachelson said could give a boost of confidence to people — particularly women and people from other underrepresented backgrounds — who might not otherwise think that they are qualified for the job.
It would also lower the number of years that a person must have practiced law in Vermont before applying to be a judge from 10 years to three, though would still require 10 years of legal experience overall, even if it was in another state.
At the same time, the bill would add a new “attribute” in state law to the list of qualities for officials to consider when weighing a nominee: “the candidate’s ties to the Vermont legal community and the candidate’s familiarity with the Vermont legal system.”
“We’re trying to open the door so more people come into the lobby,” said Rep. Martin LaLonde, a South Burlington Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary committee, citing one witness’ testimony in an interview. But, he noted, lawmakers don’t intend for anyone with lesser qualifications to be appointed.
LaLonde said the impetus for the bill came last year when, at one point, the state had five judge positions vacant — which officials said was hindering the Judiciary’s progress in addressing a stubborn backlog of pending cases.
Zonay pushed back on the proposal to lower the years of Vermont legal experience in his testimony last month. But he said that Judiciary leaders agree with the overall goal of the bill to make the state’s benches more diverse.
Of the state’s 37 judges across its superior courts and the Supreme Court, 15 are women — about 40% — and just one is a person of color, according to data shared by Rachelson on the House floor.
A second new attribute in the bill would require board members to consider “the extent to which a candidate would contribute to a Judicial branch that has diverse backgrounds and a broad range of lived experience.”
The bill would also add a new position to the Judicial Nominating Board filled by the head of the state’s Office of Racial Equity or a designee. (The Racial Equity office also testified in favor of reducing the requirement for Vermont-based experience.)
“For a nominating system to be perceived as legitimate, it must ensure that diversity is considered in nominating candidates and in appointing judges,” Rachelson said on the floor.
H.780 now heads to the Senate for further consideration.
