
Governor Charlie Baker’s nominee for the Supreme Judicial Court described herself Wednesday as enamored with the state Constitution and said she hopes to bring the same approach to the state’s highest bench.
Appeals Court Judge Elspeth “Ellie’’ B. Cypher, introduced to the public at a State House press conference, said the court she hopes to join next month is renowned for “protecting civil liberties’’ and “putting out strong, clear jurisprudence.’’
“At the Supreme Judicial Court, the opinions that they issue have vast impact,’’ Cypher told reporters.
If Cypher is confirmed by the Governor’s Council, she would become the fourth Baker pick on the seven-seat court. She would succeed Justice Margot Botsford, who is facing mandatory retirement age.
Justice Geraldine S. Hines, who like Botsford was appointed by Deval Patrick, is due to reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year, giving Baker a fifth nominee.
Asked Wednesday whether his selections — all four of whom thus far have prosecutorial backgrounds — were moving the SJC in a more centrist direction, Baker replied, “One of the things I’ve always admired about the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts is, if you think you know exactly how they’re going to decide cases, as often as not you’re going to end up being wrong.’’
“It’s a group and a body that’s demonstrated over time that they have a tremendous capacity to influence one other and to be influenced by one another. And I think that’s it’s greatest strength, and I don’t think about it as a left court, a centrist court, a right court,’’ Baker said.
One member of the Governor’s Council, Democrat Robert Jubinville of Holyoke, said he was pleased that Cypher has experience in the court system, but was noncommittal about her nomination.
“I will do my usual vetting in all areas. I don’t know much about her as far as what she’s written on the Appeals Court,’’ he told reporters after the press conference.
Cypher was appointed to the Appeals Court in 2000 by Governor Paul Cellucci, for whom Baker worked in the 1990s. Previously she worked in the Bristol district attorney’s office, as an assistant district attorney, and later as chief of its appellate division.
A Pittsburgh native, Cypher lives in Assonet with her wife, Sharon Levesque, and their son.
She is a graduate of Emerson College and Suffolk University Law School. She taught law at the Southern New England School of Law, now the University of Massachusetts School of Law Dartmouth.
Cypher is due to appear before the Governor’s Council on March 1. The eight-member panel last year approved all three of Baker’s picks unanimously, but some members of its Democratic majority have voiced leeriness about Baker’s preference for former prosecutors.
In the event of a tie, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, a close Baker ally, could break the impasse.
Jim O’Sullivan can be reached at jim.osullivan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JOSreports.