Gov. Janet Mills has nominated a longtime senior litigator in the attorney general’s office to serve on Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court.
Christopher Taub has worked in the attorney general’s office since 1999 and has served as chief deputy attorney general since 2021.
He previously worked as a trial lawyer in the agency and headed the litigation division when now-Gov. Janet Mills served as attorney general.
Mills, a Democrat, nominated Taub on Friday to fill the seat of Associate Justice Andrew Horton, who retired last year.
“Through his service to Maine people in the Office of the Attorney General — as a trial lawyer, as chief of the office’s litigation division and in his current role as chief deputy attorney general — Taub has earned wide respect for his professionalism and legal acumen on a variety of challenging issues,” Mills said in a statement. “He has represented the people of Maine with integrity and distinction in many complex matters and has earned this nomination to the Supreme Judicial Court.”
Taub has represented the state in multiple cases before federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also either lead or co-counsel on several high-profile cases pending in the federal courts. Those include the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education over the state’s policy allowing transgender athletes in interscholastic sports and a lawsuit filed by gun shops and others challenging Maine’s three-day waiting period on firearm purchases.
Taub’s responsibilities on those cases will be transferred to his co-counsel or to other staff attorneys, according to the attorney general’s office.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee will likely hold a confirmation hearing on Taub in the coming weeks before making a recommendation to the Maine Senate. If confirmed by the Senate, Taub would be the sixth justice nominated by Mills to the seven-person Supreme Court during her two terms as governor. Mills also renominated the seventh justice, Associate Justice Andrew Mead.
A resident of Brunswick, Taub graduated from Boston University’s law school and worked in private practice before joining the attorney general’s office.
“If confirmed, I will continue to serve the people of Maine as I have throughout my 27-year career in the Attorney General’s Office, to ensure the law is upheld fairly and equitably,” Taub said in a statement.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
