AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage nominated eleven people to be judges in Maine’s court system Monday, two of whom be first-time judges in the District Court system.
One of the new appointees is Daniel Billings, who since January 2011 has served as LePage’s chief legal counsel. The governor’s nomination of Billings isn’t without precedent. Govs. Angus King and John Baldacci also nominated their counsel to the state court. The other new appointee is John Lucy, a lawyer from Orono.
LePage renominated Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justices Donald Alexander and Warren Silver; Superior Court Justices Jeffrey Hjelm, Thomas Humphrey, Thomas Warren and Joyce Wheeler; active retired Superior Court Justice Carl Bradford; and District Court Judges Keith Powers and Kevin Stitham. Billings and Lucy are being nominated to serve as District Court judges.
Sen. Douglas Hastings III, R-Oxford, chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Charles Priest, D-Brunswick, the committee’s ranking minority member, both said Billings would bring ample experience to the judgeship and neither took issue with the fact that Billings is employed in the LePage administration.
“Many of our judges are appointed out of government positions, working for the attorney general’s office, or the like,” said Hastings. “My impression of [Billings] is that he’s an excellent lawyer. He has the experience that you need in order to be a district court judge. He’s been a good advocate for the governor and I’ve always appreciated that he’s always been a good advocate for the judicial branch as a separate branch of government.”
Priest agreed and said his only disappointments are that LePage’s office would lose a valuable voice if Billings is appointed to the District Courts. Priest also said he bemoans the loss of Judge Ralph Tucker, who according to a press release from LePage is retiring.
“I think [Billings] would be an excellent judge,” said Priest. “He’s smart and before our committee, he’s been very reasonable. He’s been a force for good. I think he’s been a steadying force for the governor.”
Janet Mills, a former member of the Judiciary Committee who served as Maine’s attorney general for two years, said two governors before LePage also successfully nominated their legal counsels for the bench. Baldacci nominated Patrick Ende and King nominated Wayne Douglas. Both are still District Court judges.
“It’s not unheard of at all,” said Mills, who now works in the private sector. “[Billings] is a pretty good lawyer. He has the proper practical experience.”
According to a press release from LePage, many of Monday’s appointees have long histories of serving the court system:
• Justice Alexander has been a judge since 1978 and was promoted to the Superior Court bench in 1980. In 1998, he was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court after nominations by Govs. Angus King and John Baldacci.
• Justice Silver has been a member of the Law Court since 2005.
• Justice Hjelm was appointed a district court judge in 1992 and became a Superior Court justice in 1998.
• Justice Humphrey, who has been chief justice of the Superior Court since 2004, was appointed to the district court in 1993 and moved to the Superior Court in 1998.
• Justice Warren has served the Superior Court since 1998.
• Justice Wheeler joined the joined the state’s Administrative Court in 1994 and became a District Court judge in 1999. She moved to the Superior Court system in 2005.
• Justice Bradford served the Superior Court system from 1981 through 1998, when he became an active retired justice.
• Judge Powers has served the District Court system since 1998.
• Judge Stitham was served the District Court bench since 1998.
• Billings, a resident of Bowdoinham, has served as LePage’s chief legal counsel since January 2011. Before that, he was a partner at Marden, Dubord, Bernier and Stevens in Waterville, where he focused on civil litigation and criminal defense. Billings, a graduate of the University of Southern Maine and University of Maine School of Law, where he graduated second in his class, also has been involved with Republican causes, including a stint as the Maine Republican Party’s legal counsel and as a member of LePage’s transition team. He was also a member of the Bowdoinham Board of Selectmen in recent years.
• Lucy, a resident of Orono, is a partner at Richardson, Whitman, Large & Badger in Bangor, where he has practiced since 1990. He is a graduate of the University of Maine and the University of Maine School of Law in 1990. Lucy, who has lived in Maine since 1969, was a member of the UMaine football team and is a member of several law-related organizations. According to the law firm’s website, Lucy has experience in civil litigation and trial work in several levels of state and federal court, including the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
The vacancies proposed to be filled by Billings and Lucy were created by the retirements of District Court Judges Jessie Gunther and Ralph Tucker. Judicial nominees must be reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary and confirmed by the full Senate. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold confirmation hearings on Sept. 4 and 5 and the Senate is scheduled to take up the nomination on Sept. 6.
“As governor, I have been impressed with the high-quality work of the judicial branch,” said LePage in a press release. “My decision to re-nominate nine current judges reflects the fact that Maine people are being served well in our courts. I am confident that my two new nominees will live up to the high standards we expect from Maine judges.”
I saw one woman on the entire list. That is not equality. Women are equal citizens and deserve to be judges as much as men. LePage has set a very bad example.
9 were already judges, he simply reappointed them. Their term is 7 years. When a womans term is up she’ll most likely be reappointed. Anything to bash, jeesh!
At least there were no family members this time.
refering to the murrays i assume
Come on, some people do not want facts. It makes it more difficult for them to find fault with Gov. LePage.
Finding fault with LePage is about as difficult as finding sand on the beach.
For people who blindly follow party lines (the majority of posters on this site and the BDN itself) I believe you are correct. While I don’t agree with everything he’s done, I truly respect him. He’s a non-politician who has the nearly impossible job of trying to raise this sunken ship in less than four years. If Gov. LePage decides to run again in 2014 (I would be surprised), he has my vote.
Let’s see: according to the article out of the eleven individuals nine were renominated and two were new appointments. So exactly how would you have handled this? There were two first time nominees for district court judges so perhaps he should have named one woman and one man just to keep it “equal” or would you have failed to renominate 4.5 judges so you could bring in 4.5 women? Frankly I’m pleased that he was satisfied with the nine incumbents and didn’t feel he needed to make wholesale changes to satisfy either his or your political agenda.
I don’t think equality for women is a “political agenda.” Is that what you are saying? And yes, I think more women should have been nominated. Let’s start with picking from among the many excellent women lawyers in the state, instead of, say, “Active Retired” Justice Bradford. The guy’s retired already. Let a woman be a judge!
I think it sad that you cloak your own political agenda behind a flimsy pretense of reason. The Republican party better start treating women better, because women are not going to be content with white males running the vast majority of the show.
Probably no Wise Latinas available in Maine.
What’s your point? Do you think you make Republicans look good when you talk like this?
Nominated for being women? Or nominated for being qualified? If we go out of our way to nominate them just for being women, isn’t that patronizing?
My thought exactly when I read the article. Men continuing to keep women down in our society. There are some really good lawyers in our state who are women. Like Melissa from Drummond Woodsum.
So counting is all that is important to you? Do qualifications count? Did you know that LePage did not appoint all of these judges? Is that important to you or are your comments geared toward ripping apart everything LePage says and does? You don’t need to answer, we know.
You don’t think women have equal qualifications?
Don’t bother answering. You sound like a defense lawyer pulling out all the dirty tricks for your dubious client. If GOP males don’t give equality to women, the women in the GOP are going to break from them, because women can and should be given a fair and equal chance to be judges.
How in the world could any woman remain a republican after the onslaught against them these last two years from people like Mr. Ryan and Mr. Akin? The republicans have truly lost their way both nationally and on the state level. Let’s hope the voters – and I hope every woman makes it to the polls this year – turn them out.
What onslaught has Paul Ryan brought against women?
Paul Ryan has co-sponsored with the now famous Congressman Akin several bills that tried to (1) redefine rape with language using words such as ‘forcible’. Even Mr. Romney used that word this week in talking ajbout rape. Rape is rape and trying to change the definition will not change the fact (2) say that a fertilized egg that has not implanted in the womb is a ‘person’ with the constitutional rights of a person – and I guess a superior one to the woman who is carrying that egg – and then all kinds of laws about contraception and abortion can follow from that.(3) no exceptions for rape or incest – a woman – or child as in many cases of incest – must carry the ‘gift from god’.
The Republican state legislatures and the Federal Republicans in Congress have introduced over 1,000 bills regarding abortion since their take-over in 2010. They ran on jobs, jobs, jobs and all they do is social engineering to fit their extreme Taliban-like views of controlling women.
By the way, this view that a woman can’t get pregnant from rape unless it’s a ‘legitimate” rape is BS. 39,000 women in the US became pregnant last year from being raped. These people who say these things believe their ideology over science on everything.
Enough!
And this is different from the examples he sets in other areas how…?
Not for the GOP he has not.
Cant wait to go to the confimation hearings……Lepage association = epic fail.
In what way. Give me the reasons why this is a failure and the facts to back it up.
You would have to see for your self how he conducts himself at the state house.
One reason, Because LePage has his hands in it, the facts to back it up GOP establishment as a whole, Grover Norquist and his Muslim Wife w pledge against America’s economy, MHPC, FOX NEWS, Rupert Murdock, Mitt Romney, Donald the hair, Rush and his child bride sitting atop the high moral ground, Larry wide stance Craige, Tom Delay, Nixon, W Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and Baine Capital………
A little “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” going on here?
Can’t be running out of relatives can he?
Billings is referred to derisively within the Maine GOP as “The Penguin,” for obvious reasons.
since when is a judge renominated when they are already on the bench
Megamind!
Congrats Dan , you will make a fine judge…Good luck my friend…..
I hope he is a hanging judge. One that trials and hangs on the same day
I have known Dan for many years. He is a first rate lawyer, and well-qualified for the bench.
He’s been a “steady force for the governor”? Has the governor been “steady”? I would say he’s been just the opposite – impulsive and chaotic. Doesn’t say much for Billings!
At least Baldacci waited to appoint his associates until his term was almost up. Oh, wait, I’m sorry, 2014 is just around the corner.
What’s the big deal. Any person who can read law books can quote the law. We’re not talking rocket science here. Laws are made to protect the crimminals. So, I say, pull some person off the street and if he/she can read, put them on the bench. No big deal. (except, of course, for the big paycheck and the excellent retirement package.)