Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday nominated Appeals Court Judge Gabrielle Wolohojian to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Judicial Court, elevating to the state's highest court a longtime appellate judge who is also the governor's former domestic partner.
Healey's choice to pick a former partner for a lofty perch on the SJC raised eyebrows around Beacon Hill on Wednesday and led to calls from the Republican Party for the governor to withdraw the nomination.
The governor defended the choice Wednesday afternoon saying she is "proud of nominating somebody who is so deserving and so qualified" and that "it is what the commonwealth deserves."
"There is no one more qualified. I am very comfortable in saying that," Healey told reporters outside her office Wednesday afternoon. "If you look at her record and you look at her career, as a lawyer and then as a judge these past 16 years on the Appeals Court, there's no more no one more qualified or more prepared. You know, I don't want the fact that she had a personal relationship with me to deprive the commonwealth of a person who's most qualified for the position."
Wolohojian was nominated to the Appeals Court by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2007, and has sat on more than 2,700 appeals and authored more than 900 decisions since taking the bench in February 2008. She serves as chair of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Advisory Committees on the Rules of Appellate Procedure and of the Appeals Court's Committees on Judicial Mentoring and Training, Education, Policies and Practices, and En Banc Rehearings.
If confirmed, Wolohojian would fill the vacancy created by last week's resignation of Justice David Lowy, a Gov. Charlie Baker appointee who left the SJC for a job at the University of Massachusetts. Healey's first SJC nominee, Justice Bessie Dewar, just joined the bench. The nomination now goes to the Governor's Council for its consideration and an eventual confirmation vote.
Tara Jacobs, who represents western Massachusetts on the Governor's Council, said Wednesday that — so far — she had heard positive things about Wolohojian as a judge, that "she's qualified, has experience, has respect."
But Jacobs was concerned about the personal ties between the governor and her nominee.
"The optics certainly aren't great," Jacobs said. "I've definitely heard feedback about the appearance of this particular nomination, and what it signals."
Jacobs said she still has to do a lot of research before deciding how to vote on Wolohojian.
"For me, there's lots of considerations — like having qualified, exceptional people sitting at the SJC is very important to me and I value that, having LGBTQ representation at the SJC is something I very much want to see," she said. "There's something, though, about the insider-baseball-ness of it all, that is certainly a red flag to consider. And how much weight that will play, I really can't say at this moment because it is so early days."
Jacobs said one concern was about potential conflicts of interest.
"The SJC sees cases coming out ... based on governor's choices. And so, is there a conflict of interest there as a sitting SJC member? Will there have to be recusals?" she said. "And, for the SJC, which only has seven sitting members, what impact will that have on their work and their burden if there is a member who frequently has to recuse themselves? So that's a question."
Jacobs was also disappointed that Healey again did not select a western Massachusetts resident to serve on the SJC, noting it's been seven years since the region was represented on the high court.
"In terms of just regional equity and representation, it's a vacuum, it's a void and it is felt," she said. "So there was widespread disappointment to see that western Mass. once again did not get a nod to the SJC."
In her 9:30 a.m. press release, Healey's office did not reference the fact that the two women were previously in a domestic relationship and lived together in Charlestown. "Justice Wolohojian has served on the Appeals Court with distinction and her work is widely respected by members of the bench and bar. She has an exceptional understanding of the law and a strong commitment to the administration of justice," Healey said in the announcement statement.
Wolohojian, 63, would be able to sit on the SJC until she turns 70, the mandatory retirement age for judges, on Dec. 16, 2030.
Before being appointed to the bench by Patrick, Wolohojian was a senior partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, worked in the office of the independent counsel during the early days of the Whitewater scandal that eventually enveloped the Clinton presidency and resulted in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and defended pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in over 2,600 Massachusetts liability cases that emerged out of the use of diet drugs.
She also clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel and the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bailey Aldrich. Wolohojian is an accomplished violinist and has performed as part of the Boston Civic Symphony and the Boston Bar Orchestra.
Retired SJC Justice Geraldine Hines said Wolohojian is "uniquely qualified to join the Supreme Judicial Court at a time when it enjoys and is committed to maintaining its reputation as one of the most respected state supreme courts in the country."
"This is a difficult job that demands intellectual vigor, respect for the rule of law, an unwavering commitment to equal justice under the law, and an impeccable work ethic. From our time together on the Appeals Court and from my conversations with colleagues who have continued to serve on the court, I can say that Justice Wolohojian is richly blessed with these qualifications, as exemplified in her record of achievement as a lawyer and jurist," Hines said. "She has also mastered the under-appreciated but important skill so critical to appellate judging: the ability to accept and coax consensus from the inevitable debates that arise when seven justices with diverse background, life experiences and judicial philosophies are called upon to decide the difficult and complex issues of law presented to the court."
Hours after Healey's nomination of Wolohojian, Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Amy Carnevale reacted with a statement calling on the governor to withdraw her nomination and making no mention of the nominee's legal career.
"It is highly inappropriate for the Governor to nominate to Massachusetts’ highest court an individual with whom she had a long-term romantic relationship in the past," Carnevale said. "This nomination clearly demonstrates a lack of accountability inherent in one-party rule. We urge the Governor to immediately withdraw her nominee and, if not withdrawn, we urge the Governor’s Council to reject this nominee."
Wolohojian was identified as Healey's partner as early as October 2013 when Healey first announced she would run for attorney general. In 2015, Healey told Boston Magazine that she met Wolohojian while they both worked at Hale & Dorr and that they had been together for about eight years at that point.
Before being elected governor in 2022, Healey had moved from the address she shared with Wolohojian to the South End and then Cambridge. She now lives in Arlington at the home of her new partner, Joanna Lydgate. Lydgate was as a policy analyst on Healey's 2014 campaign for attorney general and then worked for Healey in the attorney general’s office. The governor told the Boston Globe last year that she and Lydgate had been in a relationship for about two years.
Though the nomination is ultimately made by Healey, Wolohojian came unanimously recommended by the Supreme Judicial Court Nominating Commission. That group includes five people appointed by the governor. Healey would not say Wednesday whether Wolohojian was the only person recommended by the commission or whether she selected Wolohojian out of a number of recommendations.
"I'm not going to get into how we engage with the Judicial Nominating Committee. I will tell you, once again, that she had the unanimous and unqualified support of the entirety of the commission," the governor said.
Healey also said Wednesday that she does not think Wolohojian would have to recuse herself from any SJC cases that involve state government or Healey's administration.
"In fact, Justice Wolohojian currently presides and has presided over matters involving state agencies and the executive office, and there's no reason for that to change," Healey said.
Longtime lawyer Martin Murphy, who served on the commission that recommended Wolohojian, declared that there is "no sitting judge or practicing lawyer in Massachusetts [who] is more qualified for nomination to the SJC than Justice Wolohojian."
"I have known Justice Wolohojian since 2001, when she was opposing counsel on a five-week civil case tried in the Suffolk Superior Court. Although the case presented many difficult and challenging legal issues, Gabrielle’s penetrating intelligence and common sense cut through the complexities. She was also unfailingly civil and courteous—exactly what one hopes to see from fellow members of the bar, especially one’s opponent. (I say all this despite the fact that I lost and she won)," Murphy wrote in a letter to the governor. He added, "Since I first met Justice Wolohojian, she has impressed me with her extraordinary intellectual honesty, her deep humility, and her profound love of the Massachusetts court system and the role that it can play, when it is at its best, in delivering justice to litigants and the public."
Letters in support of Wolohojian's nomination from Murphy and Hines were both dated Feb. 5, suggesting that the governor did not cement her pick until this week. The governor's December calendar showed that she had a call with Dewar, her first nominee to the SJC, two days before announcing her nomination.
This story contains reporting from NEPM's Sam Hudzik.
