Executive Order  No. 411: Amendment to Executive Order No. 355 (Judicial Nominating Council)

Executive Order No. 355 is hereby amended by striking, in section 9 and section 10, the words "the Appeals Court and the Supreme Judicial Court" and replacing them with the words "and the Appeals Court."

Executive Order No. 355 is further amended by striking, in section 10, the words "the Appeals Court or the Supreme Judicial Court" and replacing them with the words "or the Appeals Court."

Executive Order No. 355 is further amended by inserting the following section after section 11:

Section 11A. There shall be a Special Nominating Committee established for the selection of judges to the Supreme Judicial Court. This Committee shall consist of nine members drawn from throughout the Commonwealth. The Committee shall have an initial life of 2 years, until May 30, 2001, but may be extended by the Governor. If the Committee is not extended, its responsibilities with regard to the Supreme Judicial Court shall revert to the Executive Committee.

The members of the Special Nominating Committee shall be selected by the Governor, and will serve at his pleasure and under the same rules as apply to members of the Regional and Executive Committees as set forth in this Executive Order. The Governor will designate a chair from the Committee membership. The Committee's charge will be that given to the Regional and Executive Committees, with particular focus on the needs of the Supreme Judicial Court and the often special experience, interests, and qualities necessary to the making of a well qualified candidate for the Supreme Judicial Court.

The Committee shall recommend a pool of well qualified judicial candidate for the Supreme Judicial Court. The Committee shall recommend a pool of well qualified candidates to the Governor, through the Executive Committee. The Committee shall adopt procedures for the conduct of its affairs. The Committee shall be responsible for periodically keeping candidates informed of their status in the process. The Committee shall forward only those candidates who receive a majority of the votes cast at a voting meeting, but in any event, no candidate shall be forwarded for consideration by the Governor unless he or she shall have received four votes from the Committee.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston this 13th day of May in the year one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.

Argeo Paul Cellucci, Governor
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

William Francis Galvin
Secretary of the Commonwealth