Free Republic

Gov. Jerry Brown nominated UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court Tuesday, giving the state high court a fourth Asian justice and a collegial liberal who is likely to be strongly supportive of civil rights. Liu was President Obama's pick for a seat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but he failed to garner enough Republican support. Liu, 40, has never been a judge, but his colleagues at Berkeley, including conservatives, strongly endorsed him for the position. Liu, a graduate of Yale Law School, is the son of Taiwanese immigrants. He was born in...

Any minute now we will hear the result of another lawsuit about same-sex marriage. This month a federal judge in Massachusetts threw out a Congressional law which defined marriage as the union of man and woman. Soon a federal judge in California is going to rule in a lawsuit challenging “Proposition 8," the referendum by which California’s voters kept the traditional meaning of marriage in their law. If the pending ruling throws out Prop. 8 – as it very likely will – it would be the biggest victory so far for those promoting same-sex marriage in the United States. These...

LOS ANGELES - On Wednesday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that Honorable Tani Cantil-Sakauye is his choice for Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. If confirmed, Justice Cantil-Sakauye would be the first Filipino-American and the second woman to preside over the state's highest court. The confirmation of Cantil-Sakauye would give the seven-member Supreme Court a majority of four women for the first time in California history. Justice Cantil-Sakauye is a distinguished and deserving candidate with decades of public service experience in the California judicial system. Furthermore, the possibility of the first ever female majority on the California Supreme Court sends...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will nominate Tani Cantil-Sakauye, a Republican appellate court justice with a reputation as a moderate, to be chief justice of the California Supreme Court, The Bee learned Tuesday. Cantil-Sakauye, 50, of Sacramento is a former prosecutor and Sacramento Superior Court judge. She would replace Chief Justice Ronald George, who has announced he will retire Jan. 2. Cantil-Sakauye has been on the 3rd District Court of Appeal since 2005. If approved by a three-member commission and by voters in November, she would start a 12-year term in January. She would be the state's first Filipina American chief justice.

From issuing historic rulings on gay marriage, affirmative action and abortion rights to ushering in a new era of legal and political clout for California's highest court, Chief Justice Ronald George has cast a long shadow of influence across the state since the mid-1990s. On Wednesday, California's 27th chief justice decided it was time to step aside, unexpectedly announcing he will not seek a new 12-year term in November and will put an official end to the "George Court" on Jan. 2. The 70-year-old George said he will retreat from his notoriously frenetic life to read, run and travel —...

This guide helped a lot. I still can't figure out why a judge should not be required to file his/her personal party affiliations. Today more than ever we have to find activist judges and get ride of them! I hope all states have a similar guide to help everyone. Vote!

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed two attorneys to Superior Court judgeships in Alameda and Marin counties. -- Each judge will receive an annual salary of $178,789.

The California Supreme Court's surprising announcement that it will quickly review the legality of Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, has prompted growing speculation that the four judges who found a right to gay marriage in the state Constitution in a May ruling will quickly throw Prop. 8 out. If that happens, watch out for a "barn-burner of an election -- the biggest thing this state has ever seen," says recall election guru Ted Costa. Costa says he's already been contacted by some of the folks who would seek to recall Ronald George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno if...

Reporting from Sacramento and Pasadena -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage. He also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already married would not be affected by the initiative. "It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end," Schwarzenegger said in an interview on CNN this morning. "I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn to the post of Superior Court judge. Details from the governor's statement: Hahn, 58, of San Pedro, has served as a mediator for the Alternative Resolution Center since January 2008. Prior to that, he worked as managing director for Chadwick, Saylor & Company from 2005 to 2007. Hahn served the city of Los Angeles as mayor from 2001 to 2005, city attorney from 1985 to 2001 and controller from 1981 to 1985. From 1979 to 1981, he was a partner with Horner and Hahn and, from 1975 to 1979, a...

If Prop. 8 wins, Newsom will be scapegoated. But the recriminations should focus on Ronald George.I voted against Proposition 8, just as I voted against Proposition 22 in 2000, on equality-under-the-law grounds. I hope the anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment fails on Tuesday. But I'm increasingly beginning to suspect it will pass. Backers have mounted a shrewdly framed TV ad campaign that doesn't have the harsh edge many expected from die-hard opponents of gay marriage. Its focus on the possibility that school kids might be taught about gay marriage has touched a chord among parents. (No, I don't think this claim is...

San Francisco (AP) -- California Chief Justice Ronald George has spent more than half his life cultivating an image of a cautious jurist and earning a reputation as a politically skilled court administrator. But his unlikely legacy as gay rights pioneer was sealed May 15, when he heard the roar of a crowd gathered below his office as his majority decision legalizing same-sex marriage was announced. Now, the law-and-order supporter of capital punishment is enduring from gay marriage foes the very complaints of "judicial activism" he has worked so hard to avoid during his 17 years on the high court...

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May -- twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today appointed Silicon Valley lawyer Lucy Koh to a Santa Clara County Superior Court judgeship, moving quickly to fill an opening created by the recent disability retirement of Judge Randolf Rice. Koh, 39, is a partner in the McDermott, Will and Emery law firm, working as a litigator in the intellectual property department with a focus on patent and trade secrets cases. Koh is a former federal prosecutor who served in the major fraud section of the Los Angeles U.S. attorney's office and she worked as a Justice Department lawyer in Washington, D.C. from 1994 to 1997....

As early as this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will appoint a new judge to one of the state's 58 trial courts – and begin seizing an unprecedented opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the state judiciary. Legislation passed last year empowers Schwarzenegger to appoint 50 new judges beginning this month and 100 more in the coming years. These are positions the judiciary says are needed to meet growing demands on trial and appellate courts. The seats are newly created, not replacements for retired or departed judges. Never before has a California governor been given such a chance to affect...

I've opened this thread as a clearing house of information related to various judicial candidates in CA on the ballot for the Nov 2006 election. Feel free to add to it.

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...

LOS ANGELES – U.S. District Judge Manuel Real has a reputation of playing rough on the bench, running his courtroom like a tyrant and shouting over lawyers on the losing end of his rulings. However, he is also known to some as a fatherly, charming and sharp jurist who dedicates a considerable amount of time to help track the rehabilitation of defendants. Now, the 82-year-old Los Angeles judge, who was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson, faces judgment himself. U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., has introduced a resolution to enable his panel to investigate Real. If it's approved,...

Assembly Democrats and the governor are battling over judicial appointments, with overworked county courts caught in the middle. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, last week ordered new Superior Court judgeships for 2006-07 cut from 50 to 25; the 50 were to include three for San Joaquin and one each for Contra Costa and Solano counties. The money remains in the budget. Nunez ordered the cut in a separate bill authorizing the new slots. Steve Maviglio, Nunez's spokesman, said Tuesday it's mainly due to whom Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been naming to the bench. "The governor's appointments look like they've...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday he intends to appoint former Republican Congressman James Rogan to a judgeship in the Orange Superior Court on Oct. 1. Representing Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and neighboring areas in Congress from 1996 to 2000, Rogan was one of the House managers in the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton, but lost a heavily contested race in 2000 to Schiff. Schwarzenegger also named San Diego attorney Carolyn M. Caietti and Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura H. Parsky to judgeships in the San Diego Superior Court, tapped Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy District Attorney Edward Bullard for a...