Courts Of Justice

Friday, March 6, 2026·5h 1m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Joint Senate and House Courts of Justice Committee conducted a full day of judicial performance evaluations and candidate interviews, certifying the majority of interviewed candidates by voice vote while explicitly declining to certify retired judges Valentine Southall Jr. and Thomas Cullen for recall due to persistently low judicial performance evaluation scores.

Key Actions

·Judicial Performance Review – Retired Judge Valentine W. Southall Jr.No Vote

+ 14 more actions

Controversies

Recall certification of Judge Valentine Southall Jr. and Judge Thomas Cullen following persistently low JPE scores

Marcus B. Simon stated he 'wasn't satisfied with their answers about their low scores and they didn't seem to be interested in trying to improve and mostly just question the process for why they got low scores,' supporting removal from the recall list. The chair pulled both Southall and Cullen, and a separate unnamed committee member agreed there was cause for concern based on their scores and responses. Southall had defended his scores by citing 'pushback and tension' when enforcing court rules and offered no specific improvement plan; Cullen, whose average score of 59.2 was described as the lowest seen in 395 judges since 2018, disputed a news account about a pregnant attorney while acknowledging he had implemented the 'why question' in his rulings only since September.

+ 2 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Jr. And Judge Thomas Cullen to pull from that recall list. Does anyone else wish to pull Anyone else speaking just to the whole delegate? Simon. Honestly, I wouldn't. I don't have a lot of background. I don't know what the delegations think. I know that for the retired judges, I wouldn't want to pull”
Marcus B. Simon (committee member) — Simon was explaining his position on whether to pull retired judges Southall, Cullen, and McHugh from the recall certification list following their responses to questions about persistently low judicial performance evaluation scores.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Block certification of all judicial candidates interviewed during the session, excluding 12th Judicial District (Chesterfield) judgesPassed

Certification of retired judges for recall, excluding Judge Valentine Southall Jr. and Judge Thomas Cullen (pulled by chair); temporary certification of Judge Stephen Bloom and Judge Peter Ste to sit through December 31Passed

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TranscriptPreview

I'd like to call the joint meeting of the Senate and House Courts of Justice Committee meeting to order. I don't think we take roll for this meeting. Right, Right, guys. Okay, so folks, you have in front of you the lineup we're going to do. Retired judges first. They're going to do. Agreed, judges next. And then I think we've saved everybody from Chesterfield for last. So that's the, that's the plan. So, and you'll see it in the package in front of you. The retired judge package should be on the top. Those are the abbreviated JPE reviews that they do. And I want to remind anybody that if anybody would like to discuss any of the matters, the bar discipline matters that have been disclosed to us, we have to do that in closed session. So if anybody would like to do that, it'd be helpful if you could give us, either myself or Doug Amaldonado, coach Air Maldonado, the heads up so we could be a little prepared for that because there's a script we have to read to do it. So having said all that, let's get going so we can all get home. First…

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