Posted on 09/26/2006 3:33:46 PM PDT by calcowgirl
SAN FRANCISCO - Justice Joyce Kennard is the longest-serving member of the California Supreme Court, appointed by then-Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989. Justice Carol Corrigan is the newest, taking the bench in January after being tapped by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Both go before voters this fall.
In this so-called retention election, there is no campaign and no opponents for the nonpartisan office. Voters will be asked a yes-no question: Should the justices be retained? To keep their seat on the state's highest court for the next 12 years, each candidate must get more yes votes than no votes.
In the unlikely event that doesn't happen, the governor would fill the vacancies with appointments.
Kennard, 65, is one of the most vocal justices on the seven-member court. When attorneys argue before the justices, they usually get an earful from Kennard, who was born in West Java, Indonesia and is also the court's most frequent dissenter.
In August, she was the only justice to go against the majority in a ruling that said kennel workers bitten by dogs in their care cannot sue pet owners under a state law that automatically holds owners liable for injuries by their pets. She said her colleagues were usurping the will of the Legislature.
Like Kennard, Corrigan, 58, of Stockton is a Republican appointee. The only Democrat on the Supreme Court is Justice Carlos Moreno.
Corrigan replaced Justice Janice Rogers Brown, who resigned last year after she was tapped by President Bush for a federal appeals court.
She's on the ballot because the California Constitution requires first-time high court appointees to run for election on the same ballot that voters decide the governor's race. Schwarzenegger is opposed by Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides.
Corrigan is too new to determine where she fits in on the court. But her questioning during oral arguments is often pointed and her record as a lower court judge has veered from moderate to conservative.
The newest justice chimed in during May arguments in the case of a former writer's assistant on the hit show "Friends" who claimed she was subjected to sexual harassment in writers' meetings.
"You shouldn't be surprised that you are going to be exposed to a lot of sexually charged language," said the former Alameda County prosecutor and justice of the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal.
Legal scholars say Kennard and Corrigan should easily be retained.
"I would rate them both exceptionally well qualified," said Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University School of Law professor who closely follows the court. "They are both very hard working judges, with great reputations for being well prepared on the bench and the source of probing questions."
Anyone who gets a smaller percentage than Janice Rodgers Brown is clearly even more an extremist than she is.
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