Justices on the New Hampshire Supreme Court are defending an irregular personnel maneuver that allowed a top state court employee to collect nearly $50,000 in employment benefits following a layoff that lasted just 48 hours.

The sitting justices — with the exception of Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi — issued a statement Thursday evening saying that Dianne Martin’s removal from her position as the top administrator of the state court system and subsequent hiring into a new role in the Judicial Branch two days later was in line with “standard personnel policies.”

Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, along with Justices Patrick Donovan, Melissa Countway, and Bryan Gould, issued the statement in response to reporting by New Hampshire Public Radio that described how Martin was able to

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