With the swearing in of newly-confirmed Justices Fasciale and Wainer Apter, there are now six Justices on the Supreme Court. One seat, left vacant when Justice Albin retired this summer, remains for one of the two Appellate Division judges designated by Chief Justice Rabner to fill vacancies.
Judge Fisher, the more senior of those two judges, who will reach mandatory retirement age on November 29, has waived that assignment. Accordingly, as announced here, Judge Fisher will be returning to the Appellate Division for his remaining tenure. That leaves Judge Sabatino to continue his temporary assignment to the Supreme Court.
Judge Sabatino had been serving as the Appellate Division’s Deputy Presiding Judge for Administration. Since he will now be sitting on the Supreme Court for the indefinite future, Chief Justice Rabner announced that Judge Sumners has been designated as Acting Deputy Presiding Judge for Administration. Interestingly, even though the title of Presiding Judge for Administration was recently changed to Chief Judge, as discussed here, the title of Deputy Presiding Judge for Administration remains and has not been re-named “Deputy Chief Judge.”
Congratulations to Judges Sabatino and Sumners!