NORTHAMPTON — Local activists and political figures are voicing their opposition to a newly appointed Massachusetts Superior Court judge who has donated money to anti-abortion organizations and candidates, arguing that laws protecting abortion access are too fragile to allow Claudine Cloutier on the bench.
The Governor’s Council confirmed Cloutier, a partner at the personal injury firm Keches Law Group and a board member at the Foundation to Advance Catholic Education through the Diocese of Fall River, on July 20 after she fielded questions at a public hearing on Beacon Hill.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday from the steps of Northampton City Hall, Jeffrey Morneau, an East Longmeadow civil rights attorney and one of four local candidates in the Sept. 6 Democratic primary for Governor’s Council, wondered why the elected body that is tasked with confirming the state’s judges would overlook the issue.
“It is absolutely shocking and appalling to me that” Cloutier’s nomination was “approved by Democrats,” said Morneau, president of the Hampden County Bar Association. “It’s unacceptable. We need to have answers. How did this happen? Why did it happen? Why did people vote this way? These are questions that need to be asked of people in power.”
The Governor’s Council has eight districts — Northampton and nearly all of the communities in the four western counties are in the 8th District — and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito is an ex-officio member.
The vote to confirm Cloutier was 5-3. Mary Hurley, the 8th District councilor who is not seeking reelection, voted in favor.
By press time, Hurley did not respond to a request for comment, and a message left for Cloutier at her office was not returned.
Also outside City Hall on Tuesday was community organizer Sara Seinberg of Leyden, a longtime reproductive rights advocate who said she is “livid” and doesn’t understand Hurley’s vote.
“People in Massachusetts think we’re doing great here, with this massive legislation that just passed the governor’s desk that protects the right to abortion,” Seinberg said of the ROE Act. “But make no mistake: The forced birth advocates are going for a nationwide ban. They’re not going to stop.”
Photographer Anja Schutz of Turners Falls takes portraits of women wearing T-shirts with slogans such as “My Choice Reigns Supreme,” “Abort the Court” and “Abortion Saves Lives” as part of her “Pro Roe” project.
“If you don’t want an abortion, don’t get one, but most people support the access,” Schutz said at Tuesday’s gathering outside City Hall.
In June, Gov. Charlie Baker nominated Cloutier to an associate justice seat on the Superior Court, the statewide system of county courthouses where first-degree murder cases are tried and civil actions over $50,000 are heard.
During last month’s confirmation hearing, Councilor Eileen Duff brought up Cloutier’s political giving. She said records show that Cloutier donated $1,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $100 to the conservative anti-abortion group National Right to Life, a contradiction that Duff said was “kind of fascinating to me.”
“I have friends that I’ve supported. I’ve had issues that I’ve supported,” Cloutier responded. “I’ve tried to, basically, be true to my conscience and also be a true friend to people.”
Duff pressed Cloutier to affirm that she would be impartial on the bench and uphold women’s “autonomy” over their bodies. Cloutier said she would be “bound by the law, and I intend to follow the law, and I will,” but “it would be contrary to judicial temperament” to predict how she would rule in any case.
“It’s hard for me to imagine under what scenario that particular question would come before a Superior Court judge,” Cloutier said. “I’ve not seen that. I’m not privy to that. I can only tell you that I would judge every matter before me in accordance with the law, and uphold the law.”
Duff said she agreed that abortion access was unlikely to come up in Superior Court.
“But then again, it could,” Duff said, “and I don’t know any circumstance where we would have a sitting president who would try to overthrow the government, but guess what? It apparently happens.”
Federal Election Commission records show Cloutier donated $100 to the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund in 2010, and $500 each to Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Scott Brown in 2012, at a time when they were running against each other for U.S. Senate. She has also given to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Baker, a Republican, among other candidates from both major parties.
Keches Law Group founding partner George Keches testified on Cloutier’s behalf, praising her legal acumen while calling her “a tireless worker on behalf of her religion” who routinely donates her bonus checks to charity.
Cloutier, a Fall River native, holds degrees from Yale University and Suffolk University Law School. She started her legal career as a law clerk for the Superior Court in 1995.
The Gazette reached out to Morneau’s Democratic opponents in the Governor’s Council race — Shawn Allyn, Michael Fenton and Tara Jacobs — and Republican candidate John Comerford to seek their comments. Allyn did not respond by press time.
Jacobs, a member of the North Adams School Committee, said she is “fully outraged” and the council’s decision is “just baffling to me.”
Abortion access “absolutely will end up in our courts, challenged sooner or later in an attempt to undermine our own reproductive rights and laws,” Jacobs said, and the “viewpoints, attitudes and biases” of nominees are fair game for councilors to consider.
“It is absolutely her right to have these sentiments,” Jacobs said. “That doesn’t mean she’s a good candidate to serve us on the bench.”
Fenton said he would prefer to see judicial nominees who share his beliefs about privacy, equality and personal decision-making around health, but “not all nominees will have such matters under their jurisdiction.”
“Superior Court is not a forum that decides matters pertaining to reproductive rights,” but he said he would vote only for nominees to the Supreme Judicial Court “who are pro-choice” because that court could hear such cases.
The Democratic primary election is set for Sept. 6 with early voting from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2. The registration deadline to participate in the primary is Aug. 27, while the vote-by-mail application deadline is Aug. 29.
Comerford, who is running in the Nov. 8 general election, said he is “opposed to abortion.”
“Had I been a member of the Governor’s Council when the nomination was presented, I would explore her judicial temperament,” Comerford said by email. “Questions concerning an applicant’s views on abortion are, in my opinion, inappropriate and I would object strenuously should another councilor broach the subject during nomination proceedings.”
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.