Hampden County seeks a place at the Adams Courthouse in Boston, where the Appeals Court sits. (WMP&I)

After two years in office, Governor Maura Healey has made a mark on the judiciary. Governors can effectively choose whomever they wish to sit on the bench, subject to Governor’s Council confirmation. She has already made two appointments to the Supreme Judicial Court, three to the Appeals Court—plus elevating one member to chief—and countless more to lower courts.

Several factors, among them a mandatory retirement age, keep the commonwealth’s judges from radically—or disingenuously—reordering law to suit political ends. However, factors familiar to state politics—like geography—are present in the selection process. To that end, advocates have been pressing Healey to pick someone from Hampden County to join the Appeals Court.

The Massachusetts judiciary is generally more consistent than the US Supreme Court or other state top courts can be. Hairpin turns on precedent are rare. Disagreements are often more technical. As a result, governors’ impact on the courts are not as ideological. Former Governor Charlie Baker appointed the majority of both the SJC and Appeals Court and neither have shifted in any meaningful way.

Some—though hardly all—lower court appointees may merely be lawyers with a politician for a friend. However, the appellate courts give governors an opportunity to shape the complexion of the courts and the law by drawing from the talent pools across the Massachusetts bar.

The Appeals Court is Massachusetts’s intermediate appellate court. It has 25 seats and hears cases in panels of three. The last Hampden County-resident judge was Jeffrey Kinder, who retired in 2022. Another recent justice from the county, Edward McDonough, served three years until 2020. He left the appellate court after requesting and receiving a renomination to the Superior Court.

The state established the Appeals Court in 1972 to lighten the workload on the SJC especially routine cases. Generally, litigants have a right to at least one appeal. The SJC can review Appeals Court decisions or even reach past it and take appeals directly from trial courts.

Healey has filled vacancies as they have arisen since she took office. One she created herself after appointing Gabrielle Wolohojian to the SJC (Healey’s other SJC nominee had not been a judge.) The currently open seat had belonged the court’s current chief, Amy Blake.

Senator John Velis with colleague–and fellow letter-signer–Senator Adam Gomez in Springfield in March. (WMP&I)

The push to get Healey to appoint somebody from Hampden County had been. It ostensibly culminated publicly with a letter that Westfield Senator John Velis led in November. Citing different perspectives Bay Staters have depending on region, Velis observed that now-Chief Justice Blake has also seen value in the court reflecting these differences.

“When asked about the needs of the Appeals Court in her hearing for the position of Chief Justice this month, Justice Amy Blake highlighted the need for geographic diversity, noting the different perspective that it brings,” Velis wrote. “A goal of that diversity, with its particularity in population, culture, and economy, is necessary to ensure that every corner of our state has a voice in the judiciary.”

Velis also noted there had been a tradition of appointing at least one Justice from Hampden County. That end, he added that the local judiciary and bar associations could easily field capable candidates.

In addition to Velis, the legislators on the letter who represent part of Hampden County include Senators Ryan Fattman, Adam Gomez, Paul Mark and Jake Oliveira and Representatives Shirley Arriaga, Brian Ashe, Patricia Duffy, Michael Finn and Kelly Pease. The letter is dated November 1.  A Velis spokesperson said the letter had a deadline and therefore no additional signatories thereafter.

Blake’s seat would have formally opened sometime after her confirmation in October. A spokesperson for Healey’s office confirmed last week that there was an open seat that the governor would fill.

Healey urged to look west for her next nom. (WMP&I)

“The Governor’s Office continues to work to nominate qualified judges from across the state for all courts as diligently as possible,” a Healey spokesperson told WMP&I.

If a Hampden County resident does not receive the appointment, it is not clear when the next seat would open.

Demographic data on the Appeals Court’s justices was not immediately available. However, some members’ tenures date to Mitt Romney, who left office nearly 18 years ago. Like all Massachusetts judges, Appeals Court justices must retire at age 70.

While no Hampden County residents are on the court now, at least two justices went to Western New England School of Law. The Republican noted that several members of the Appeals Court had been appointed after stints as assistant district attorneys in the 413 and serving as judges there. The Appeals Court often hears oral arguments at WNE’s campus in Springfield, too.