Former Justice Peter Verniero Analyzes Court Decision on Judges’ Pension

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in a 3-2 decision that the state’s judges are exempt from a 2011 law requiring public employees to increase the contributions they make to their pensions.  Peter Verniero stated, “At issue before the court was what does the word salary mean as used in the Constitution?  There is a clause in our Constitution that says that a judge’s ‘salary’ cannot be diminished during the term of his or her traditional office.  And so that was the question.  The majority opinion said that is was, the dissenting opinion said no, contributions to health benefits and pensions are not salaries.”

Peter Verniero was also quoted in articles on this issue in many news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal (July 24, 2012), Bloomberg (July 24, 2012) and the Associated Press (July 24, 2012), among others.