BROKEN TRUST: IS AG RABNER A MECHANIC WHO WANTS TO BE AN ENGINEER, PART 3.

If AG Rabner were a trained and experienced auto mechanic would you fly on an airplane he designed?

We trust auto mechanics to fix our cars but require automotive engineers to design them. We trust nurses to administer day to day hospital care but require doctors determine the health care given. And, we go to bank tellers to deposit and withdraw money but require financial managers to preserve the money we leave in the bank. It is no different with the court. A trial attorney, including prosecutor Rabner, or a trial judge, like the nurse, handle the day to day administration of the law in individual cases. Their job is applying the law as settled by the appellate or Supreme Court. They are not litigators or appellate judges. They do not resolve questions of law - they do not say what the law is. That is really the ultimate role of
the Supreme Court.

Stu Rabner is a trial lawyer. His job has been to act as the U.S. Government's advocate in administering Federal law. That experience may well qualify him to be a trial court judge either in the federal district court or in the New Jersey Superior Court. Even at the Superior Court level, however, it is uncertain the AG is an appropriate choice.

Assume for a moment you are accused of some awful crime. AG Rabner may well be prepared to prosecute against you, defend you, or decide your case. But would want him to advocate for you, defend you, or decide your case in a civil matter. If he were to be your lawyer he would be a neophyte facing experienced trial attorneys. As a new judge he would be continually challenged by a diversity of civil actions, rules and standards that bear little relation to those in a criminal court. And, he would face the rich and the powerful corporations with their well heeled outside counsel and litigation public relations firms. If they were your opponents and your home, job and / or family life were at stake would you want AG Rabner to be the trial lawyer who represents you or the judge who decides your case. In short would you want the auto mechanic to repair the airplane? Do you want to be his on the job training?

Taking the analysis one step further, ask your self, would you want the best auto mechanic in the world to design the airplane you were flying on? Because in making the AG the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court you are not just asking the mechanic to design the airplane - you are asking him to lead the design team.