Baker to nominate Dot court’s Georges for SJC seat

Hon. Serge Georges, Jr. Pool photo by Matthew Stone/Boston Herald

The Honorable Serge Georges, Jr., a Dorchester native who currently sits as an associate justice at the Dorchester Division of Boston Municipal Court, will be nominated by Gov. Charlie Baker to join the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, according to the State House News Service.

Citing a source within the Baker administration, the news service said Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito will introduce Georges and discuss his nomination during a State House press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. today.

The son of immigrants from Haiti who was raised in Uphams Corner, Georges, 50, will fill a vacancy on the seven-member body left when Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants died after a brief illness in September.

A graduate of Boston College High School, Boston College and Suffolk University School of Law who now lives in Randolph, Georges is a former president of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association and a professor at Suffolk University. He practiced law privately until 2013 when he was appointed to the Boston Municipal Court by Gov. Deval Patrick.

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Sean Curran, a political consultant who has known Georges since they were both 14-year-old freshmen at BC High, told the Reporter that the appointment is “a validation of his scholarship and his grounding in judicial procedure. It speaks to the temperament that he has on the bench and the fact that he sees the dignity in the people coming before the district court with all of life’s problems.”

He added, “He’s got tremendous empathy for the people who stand before him. And that sets him apart.”

Baker has already nominated Justice Kimberly Budd to step into the chief justice role and has tapped Appeals Court Judge Dalila Argaez Wendlandt to be elevated to the SJC bench.

The latest flurry of nominations – Baker made three SJC nominations in a similarly compressed time frame in 2016 – comes as Justice Barbara Lenk approaches the mandatory retirement age early next month and after the death of Gants.

They were the only two justices on the SJC not nominated to those positions by Baker, and now the second-term Republican is poised to have seven of his own selections sitting on the SJC, the News Service notes.

The Governor's Council, which vets and confirms Baker's nominees, will hold a hearing on Wendlant's confirmation Wednesday morning and is also expected to vote on Budd's promotion to chief. The council could schedule a confirmation hearing for Georges when it meets Wednesday.

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