Here’s what you need to know about Kimberly Budd, the next chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court
Kimberly Budd is poised to take the reins as chief justice of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court where she promises to foster a “team of equals” and draw on her lifetime of experience.
Budd has served the Massachusetts judiciary for 11 years. She was first nominated by Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick in 2009 to the state Superior Court when the late Chief Justice Ralph Gants vacated the bench to join the SJC.
Baker successfully nominated Budd to the state’s highest court in 2016 alongside fellow Justices David Lowy and Frank Gaziano in a unanimous decision by the Governor’s Council..
In her tenure, Budd has authored 85 decisions of the top court.
In her 2016 confirmation hearing, Budd laid out her opposition to the death penalty and to imposing mandatory minimum sentences.
She also said she doesn’t “see any reason why an illegal immigrant couldn’t have a driver’s license” — a stance that puts her at odds with Baker’s, but one that wasn’t enough to deter the Republican governor from nominating the “really bright, really smart” justice.
“We’ve never been a single-issue administration on anything, and we’re certainly not going to start now,” Baker said.
The daughter of former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd, she attend Georgetown University and was graduate of Harvard Law School’s Class of 1991, studying there at the same time as former President Barack Obama.
Although her father was a Republican appointee in the Justice Department, Budd told reporters she is registered as an unenrolled voter. She has donated to several political campaigns in the past including Patrick, former Democratic Attorney General Thomas Reilly’s gubernatorial bid and Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.
Budd clerked for former Appeals Court Chief Justice Joseph Warner and worked as a litigation associate at Mintz Levin after law school and later served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the major crimes and drugs unit. There, she worked on hundreds of cases, ranging from narcotics to bank robbery to fraud and also served as a member of an ethics task force investigating corruption scandals on Beacon Hill during the Patrick administration.
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2TyndeX
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