News Scrapbook 1986

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San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) San Diego Union (Cir. D. 217,089) (Cir. S. 341 ,840)

OCT st 1986

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265 law prof1ssors accuse Deukmejian of trying to pack court o/ :fom taff au d "' Report have failed to enforce the state's ically unpopular stances m spec11Jc s10ns.

In other campaign activity, Bird's Committee to Conserve the Courts previewed for the press a sixth tele- vision commercial, which continues her recently stepped-up attacks on politician he says are using the court for carE>er advancement. "Just like you, I've been watching some television lately," B1rd tells voters in the commercial "Have you seen the poht1c1ans' ads? If you listen to them, you'd think I ran every branch of government in California. "Normally, I'd be very flattered by all this attenllon. But the problem is the poht1cian are trymg to fool you. They re running against me tu a void the real issues.''

The Republican governor has made opposition to Bird a theme of his re-election campaign, capitaliz- the death penalty and the failure of his Democratic challenger, Los An- geles Mayor Tom Bradley, to take a stand on the court election. The petition was made public in Los Angeles and San Francisco by the Independent Citizens' Committee to Keep Politics Out of the Court. The committee is headed by former

cases. rather than for any lack of qualifications on their part," the peti- lion reads. "Although the governor Justices' death penalty decisions, the tenor of his opposition uggests a de- ire to 'pack the court' with hand- Deukmejian's acting campaign press secretary, Donna Lipper, re- ponded: "The governor has said that what he would do is unpack the court, l,eca""~ the court has been picked successors."

death penalty law.

Law professors who support the reten!ton of state Cluef Ju lice Rose Ehzabeth Bird yesterday attacked Gov. Deukmejian by name, accusing him of trying to park the state Su- preme Court by working for Bird's The accusation was part of a peti- tion, signed by 265 full-time law pro- fessors at 13 law schools across the state, that calls for the retention of all ·1x Justices up for confirmation The professors spec1f1cally urged support for Bird and Alsociate Jus- tlces Cruz Reynoso and Jo eph Gro- din, who have been targeted for de- feat by opponents who say the three oustcr. ov. 4

Among the professors are 43 from two San Diego law schools - the University..11LSa Diego and Cahfor- nia Western School of Law The schools plan a pedal statement in Although many law professors had earlier expressed support for Bird and had made general statements about keeping the high court free of politics, this is the first widely pubh- cize

has sought to focus attention on these mg on public . entiment m favor of

packed for years with appointees Democratic Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" from (liberal Democrat) Jerry Brown, whose son, former Dcmo-

cratic governor Edmund G. "Jerry"

Brown~ governorship. Obviously

their philosophy 1s getting in the way Brown Jr, appointed Bird, Grodin

Chief Justice Rose Bird

and Reynoso.

of the way they make their deci-

LOS Angeles, CA (Los Angeles co.) Angeles Times Lii~ D 1 076,466) \cir·. s: 1'.346,343) 0c11t fJls

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BRT~ Professors See an fort to 'Pack' HighCourt ~J(' Continued from Page 3

A'l?ong o hers Schwartz cited a decision upholding a new state law making it easier to convict drunk dnvers, a ruling allowmg a convic- ti.on for rape evrn where the v1ct1m did not Ph.>s1cally rrnisl her attack- er a nd a hold ng that private security guards need not warn shophftmg suspects they arrest of their const1tut1ora rights to silence and lega coun el.

Santa Clara, University of Sar .Qiego, Golden Gat~ty Wnfuter College and Loyola La,; Schoo1. DeukmeJian, a Republican, has made the court a central is, uc in his campa.1gn for reelection, assertmg that Bird, Reynoso and Grodm-a!I appointed by Democratic Gov. Ed- mu~d G. Brown Jr.-have fo!Jowed their personal views rather than th e law in consistently voling to overturn death sentences imposed on convicted murderers. ' Danna •PP , campaign spokeswoman for the governor, said m response to the professors' claims that "what the governor wants and what California needs is to 'unpack' the court, because it's been packed' for years with ap- pointees of Jerry Brown." "Their ph1losophJes have earned ove_r. mt~. the way they make dec1s_1ons, she said of the Brown appointees. . '"The_governor fee that one of his '!1aJOr responsibilities is ap- pomtmg JU?ges and that the people of Cahforma have a right to know what kind of judges are going on the court," she sa d. . The professors said in their peti- tion th~t .~t is ."dangerous and destructive to mJect partisan poli- tics mto a judicial election. ~hev said that a!U,ough Deuk- mepan had focus d atten O on t e three Brown appointees' records on capital p~nishment, "the tenor of !1 1s opposition suggests a desire to pack the court' with hand-picked successors "

statement crtlicizmg Deukmeiian and urging retention of the justices accounted for over half of the faculty' at the 12 law schools. The list included faculty members from UCLA, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Davis, Stanford, USC, University of San Francisco, Hastings College of the Law, Unive:fty of Please see COURT, 7.re %8

3 Others on Ballot At present, there are two Deuk- meiian appointees on the seven- member court-Justices Malcolm M. Lucas and Edward A. Panelli. Both are on the ballot along with Justice Stanley Mask, an appomtee of Democratic Gov. Edmund G (Pat) Brown, but none of thes~ three face organized oppositwn. At the news conference here Uel,i;nan predicted a "major reshap: mg of the court should Bird, Reynoso and Grodin be removed by the voters. T~.e court, he noted, had been at the cutting edge" of the law for abou_t 30 years, issuing decisions m cr1mmal, personal inJury and other cases that were often the first of "'!he agenda of opponents of the ust1ces 1s lo change the direction of the court," Uelman aid. "They want . to make the court less re- sponsive to the need to shape the !av.: to conform with changes in our oc1ety." Prof. Louis Schwartz of Hastings College of the Law distnbuted a list of 4 ? court rulings issued during ird s nme-year tenure that he described as "pro-prosecution," in- dicatmg that the Justices had fol- lowed "a rather hard !me" on cnmmal cases. their kind in the natwn. 'To Change Direction'

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