Justice Should Not Quit, Whitman Says

Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman is defending her state Supreme Court nominee, saying he should resist legislators’ calls for his resignation over the investigation of racial profiling by the state police.

Whitman, who left office to become head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said she saw nothing in Justice Peter Verniero’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee to prove that he lied about his handling of the issue while serving as her attorney general from 1996 to 1999.

Whitman’s successor, Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco, has called on Verniero to resign, saying he was not forthright during his 1999 confirmation hearings for the high court.

Verniero has refused to step down, and one lawmaker has drafted an impeachment resolution.