SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger late Tuesday rejected attempts to shine light on his judicial selection process, vetoing bills that would have unmasked his secret judge vetters and publicized the Bar ratings of his bench appointments.
In an unusually lengthy veto message, the governor said that identifying members of the eight regional panels that evaluate judicial applicants would “have a chilling effect upon people willing to provide candid information.”
“The California Constitution requires me to appoint individuals to the bench who are equal to the great task of serving this state,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “It is a duty I take very seriously and is why receiving independent, thoughtful and honest information from numerous sources is crucial in determining an applicant’s ability to perform this role.”
Ethnic bar groups, which have accused the advisory committees of screening out women and minority applicants, lobbied hard for the legislation, AB 2095.
Carmen Flores, president of San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, said that, despite the veto, advocates may pursue similar legislation again next year.
“We need to make sure that all people are represented in the process,” she said.
In his veto message, the governor defended his record of ethnic minority appointments — 23 percent to date, he said — and chastised critics who say his secret advisers foster an “old-boys club” system of judge selection.
“The people this bill seeks to identify perform an advisory role only and a final decision about who advances in the process is exercised exclusively by the judicial appointments secretary, acting on my behalf,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “Therefore, any contrary characterization does a disservice to the public.”
Outgoing Assembly Judiciary Chairman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, has said that the governor’s aides told him in 2007 that Schwarzenegger planned on eventually releasing his advisers’ names. But the governor’s official response since then has been that he only agreed to review the matter. And his judicial appointments secretary, Sharon Majors-Lewis, has made it clear publicly and privately that she opposes naming members of the judicial selection advisory committees.
Schwarzenegger on Tuesday also vetoed AB 1725, which would have required the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation to publicly label every trial court appointee as “qualified” or “not qualified.” Currently, JNE commissioners have the discretion to identify judges who received “not qualified” ratings.
“Therefore,” the governor wrote in a short veto message, “this bill is unnecessary and in fact removes some of the State Bar’s discretion in the process.”
Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, introduced AB 1725 in response to the revelation last year that Schwarzenegger appointed Republican businessman Elia Pirozzi to the San Bernardino County bench even though JNE had deemed him “not qualified.”
“Every time we’ve raised the issue of judicial diversity, the response from the governor’s office is that it only looks for the most-qualified applicants,” Lieu said in a prepared statement. “That is a false argument because there are more than enough qualified minorities to fill the precious few judicial vacancies available each year.”
This year’s legislative season ended with a flurry of vetoes by the governor — 415 total by Tuesday’s midnight deadline. Victims included legislation sponsored by consumer groups, organized labor and their attorneys.
The governor rejected SB 1113, which would have allowed winning litigants to recover legal costs in cases that “confer a significant benefit on a large class of persons.” The bill was an attempt to reverse the state Supreme Court’s ruling this year in Olson v. Automobile Club of Southern California, 08 C.D.O.S. 2391. But Schwarzenegger said SB 1113 would only encourage “unfounded litigation” at a time when “the economy is struggling to get back on its feet.”
Rejected, too, was AB 437, the so-called Lilly Ledbetter bill. The legislation attempted to address the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., 05-1074, that the deadline for filing pay discrimination lawsuits starts when the alleged violation first occurs, not from the date of a subsequent violation.
Schwarzenegger said the bill would create too much “uncertainty” if enacted. The California Chamber of Commerce labeled AB 437 one of 10 “job killer” bills worthy of the governor’s veto.
The governor also dealt the Consumer Attorneys of California a legislative loss with his veto of AB 2947, which would have made it tougher for nursing homes to make patients agree to binding arbitration as a condition of admission. In his veto message Schwarzenegger endorsed arbitration as a way of reducing caseloads in busy courts.
Finally, Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 2279, San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno’s attempt to overturn the state Supreme Court’s January ruling, in Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications, 07 C.D.O.S. 1098, that employers may fire workers who use marijuana, even if it’s been prescribed.
Schwarzenegger said that “employment protection was not a goal” of the medical marijuana initiative that California voters approved in 1996.
