Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has yet to announce his next nominee for state chief justice, following the General Assembly’s rejection of his close friend and ally, Justice Andrew McDonald. But there is one person whose name has been floated several times by Republican State Senate President Len Fasano.
That person is Associate Justice Richard Robinson of the State Supreme Court. Robinson is a 61-year-old African-American Stamford native who was corporate counsel for the City in the 1990s. He’s been on the Connecticut bench since 2000. First as a Superior Court judge, then in 2007 he was elevated to the State Appellate Court. In 2013 Governor Malloy appointed Robinson to the State Supreme Court.
After the Senate Republican caucus voted down McDonald last week, State Senate Republican President Len Fasano said, “You give me a nominee tomorrow like a Judge Robinson, who’s eligible, a nominee tomorrow picked by this Governor, and I will help that nominee, like Judge Robinson, get through, I don’t know who else he could pick.”
Malloy has yet to respond. He has said he’ll announce his decision in the coming days.
