Neehaar Gandhi, Senior Photographer

Governor Ned Lamont nominated Justice Raheem Mullins as the new state Supreme Court chief justice on Thursday. 

If approved by the state legislature’s judiciary committee, Mullins — who has served as an associate justice on the court since 2017 — would replace retiring chief justice Richard Robinson. Mullins would be the court’s second Black chief justice, after Robinson.

“My respect for the judiciary runs deep, having served at all three levels — as a Superior Court judge, an Appellate Court judge and a Supreme Court justice,” Mullins said in a press release. “If confirmed, I will strive to enhance the Connecticut Judicial Branch’s accessibility, efficiency, fairness and responsiveness to the needs of the diverse communities we serve.”

However, Mullins’ nomination does not resolve the vacancy on the state Supreme Court, which will drop to six members once Robinson retires. At a press conference Thursday, Lamont said he might nominate a new justice by late fall or early next year, CT Mirror reported. 

Last month, a coalition of advocacy groups called for Lamont to appoint a woman of color from an underrepresented professional background to the court. The coalition pointed to a historic lack of demographic diversity and an ongoing lack of professional diversity in the state judiciary, noting that Connecticut’s judges generally come from a corporate law or prosecutor background.

Empirical studies show that judges’ professional backgrounds influence their rulings. Former corporate lawyers and prosecutors were about half as likely as other judges to rule in favor of workers in employment cases, one 2021 paper found. 

Mullins launched his legal career as a prosecutor and an assistant attorney general. From 2012 to 2017, he served on both Connecticut’s Appellate and Superior Courts before becoming the youngest person ever to serve on the state Supreme Court.

Lamont described Mullins as a “fair, transparent, measured and sensible” presence on the court.

“I appreciate that he understands the impact that the court system has on the lives of the people who live in our state and the need for it to function efficiently, evenhandedly and equitably,” Lamont said.

Steve Kennedy, the organizing and network director of the People’s Parity Project, and Tom Wright, director of strategic engagement for the American Constitution Society, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. PPP spearheaded efforts to write the letter to Lamont calling for increased demographic and professional diversity and the ACS was one of the nine organizations that signed onto the letter.

State Sen. John Kissel, a ranking member of the state legislature’s judiciary committee, highlighted Mullins’ successful judicial career and called him a “terrific selection” for chief justice in a statement on Thursday. Approval by the judiciary committee is a necessary step towards Mullins’s confirmation.

Another committee member, state Sen. Matt Lesser, who represents Mullins’ hometowns of Middletown and Cromwell, also applauded Lamont’s nominee.

“H​is nomination serves as a deep source of pride for our district,” Lesser said in a statement. “Justice Mullins has brought strong leadership, fairness and equity to every court he has served on, and I am confident he would continue that legacy as Chief Justice.”

Robinson will retire from the court on Sept. 6.