NASHVILLE – Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said he hopes this month to interview three nominees for a seat on the Tennessee Supreme Court and name one of them to the state’s highest court by the end of the year.
The governor also said Monday he has some questions in mind for the prospective nominees, all currently state appellate judges, with his appointment of one of them expected to hand control of the five-member court over to Republicans for the first time since post-Civil War Reconstruction.
“Obviously, these folks are going to have a lot of weighty decisions, so we’re going to see their legal knowledge, their judicial temperament and their judicial philosophy to make certain that they fit,” Haslam said.
Haslam’s decision may be complicated by the fact that he’s responsible for all three nominees holding their current jobs.
In 2013, the governor appointed Thomas Radcliffe “Skip” Frierson II, 57, of Morristown, to serve on the state’s Court of Appeals. He named Roger Amos Page, 60, of Medina, to the state Court of Criminal Appeals in 2011. And in 2014, the governor appointed Robert H. Montgomery, 62, of Kingsport, to serve on the state Court of Criminal Appeals.