Rell Shuns Borden?

Gubernatorial swearing in ceremonies in Connecticut, like most states, are typically conducted by the chief justice. Indeed, Rell was sworn in by Chief Justice Sullivan in 2004 and Governor Rowland was sworn in by the previous two chief justices in his three previous swearings in. David Borden is the current acting chief justice and would be the logical candidate to perform the ceremony. However, on Wednesday Governor Rell deviated from that well-established procedure by having U.S. Senior District Judge Alan Nevas (see picture at left) swear her in. This might be viewed as a meaningless -- albeit odd -- deviation from usual practice, except for the fact that Justice Borden (and various members of the court) are currently wrapped up in controversy over the withdrawn nomination of Justice Zarella to be chief justice. See my previous coverage of that issue here and here. It's not a stretch to view Rell's decision as distancing herself from not only Borden, but the entire court.