Judge drops contempt proceedings against governor

AP ^ | 7/21/5 | STEVE LAWRENCE

[SmithL]

SACRAMENTO -- A Sacramento judge dropped contempt proceedings Thursday against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying his reissuing of regulations delaying tougher nurse staffing standards in hospitals was not a willful attempt to violate a court order.

In a written order, Judge Judy Hersher said she accepted statements from the governor's attorneys that administration officials believed that reissuing the regulation would not violate an injunction knocking down the regulations.

"Disobedience alone ... is not enough; such disobedience must be willful...," Hersher said. "The court is confident that respondents' misperceptions have now been corrected and the readoption of the emergency regulation will not resurface as an issue in the future."

On Tuesday, Hersher had scheduled an Aug. 17 hearing to determine if Schwarzenegger and two of his top aides should be held in contempt for reissuing the regulations, which suspended until 2008 a requirement that hospitals have at least one nurse for every five patients, instead of one nurse for every six patients, in general medical units.

The regulations, initially issued last November, also gave hospitals flexibility to override temporarily nurse staffing requirements when emergency rooms are hit with sudden, unexpected surges of patients.

Hospitals argued that a nursing shortage prevented them from meeting the staffing requirements, which were required by a 1999 law. But said Charles Idelson, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association, said "probably a majority" of hospitals have been able to comply with the law.

[republican2005]

what makes a court order more powerful than an executive order?

I thought in the US it was separate but EQUAL branches of government...

It seems to me that the governor could of just as easily ordered the judge to rule in his favor. What's the difference?

The only difference I see is that the governor controls the police, and is the only one of the two with the ability to back up his order...

I am so sick of judicial tyranny.

Recently a judge even refused an order by congress to appear before them and explain himself over the schivo case!

Again I ask.. why in a system that is suppose to consist of separate but EQUAL branches of government can one branch (the judicial) consistently force the other two to do what it wishes, while ignoring all attempts by the other two to impose their will on it?