Chief justice decries attacks on judiciary

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye decried the political pressure being placed on the judicial branch at her annual meeting with reporters Tuesday. She acknowledged voters have the right to recall or defeat judges, but said she hoped these decisions would be made based on a judge's record, rather than partisan political reasons.

She also addressed California's new Supreme Court justice and the new governor, as well as the court's budget, cash bail, judicial diversity, the death penalty, the State Bar's dismal pass rate and courthouse immigration arrests.

Cantil-Sakauye said part of her role is to try to keep California's courts above the political fray. She contrasted this with how people increasingly view the U.S. Supreme Court, while noting the greater political pressures placed on that court.

"Once that view is diminished, it can never be restored. It permanently changes people's view of the Supreme Court," she said.

She added, "I was not surprised to see Chief Justice Roberts speak out, finally, in response to criticisms made of the federal bench."

Cantil-Sakauye went on to make a distinction between reasons for challenging sitting judges. She said it was unfortunate that Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was removed over what she characterized as "a single decision" -- the sentence given to a now-former Stanford University student in a sexual assault case. But she added it was at least based on something he did on the bench.

By contrast, she noted that four San Francisco County judges were challenged unsuccessfully this year based on the fact that they had been appointed by Republican governors.

Cantil-Sakauye conceded she has occasionally made comments that could be construed as political -- most notably in 2017 when she criticized courthouse arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said she was still troubled by these arrests, particularly a recent one inside the Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas.

She said she hoped the court would get "home field support" from the incoming governor. Gavin Newsom is the son of William A. Newsom III, a retired justice of the state appeals court in San Francisco.

One goal of the current "hybrid budget" to be produced in Gov. Jerry Brown's handover of power to Newsom will be to move the courts off of dependence on "volatile" fines and fees and more toward being financed by the state general fund, she said.

While overall funding for courts is likely to go down over time, Cantil-Sakauye said courts could handle this change because filings are declining and increased use of technology is getting litigants "online rather than in line."

She said she hoped Brown's final high court nominee, Joshua Groban, will be seated in time for the court's oral arguments on Jan. 7. The chief justice praised the diversity of Brown's 600 judicial appointees, saying about half are women and 40 percent are people of color.

Two criminal justice issues have been a recent focus for the court: bail and the death penalty.

Judicial Council Administrative Director Martin Hoshino said a bill passed this year to phase out cash bail in California was just the latest in a series of steps the courts have been taking for years to change how bail works in the state. But a pending referendum to overturn SB 10 has created uncertainty, especially because the law was meant to phase in over more than a year.

"In the event the referendum qualifies but does not pass, if the voters do not repeal SB 10," he said, "then the state is in an awkward spot, where as soon as the referendum results are in, the state will have to move very quickly and very dramatically" over a period of weeks to implement the law.

Cantil-Sakauye added that the Judicial Council recently voted to adopt draft rules for counsel in habeas corpus cases. This was in response to Proposition 66, a 2016 voter initiative to speed up death penalty cases, which account for about a quarter of the courts' cases.

As for the State Bar's low passage rate, which has prompted calls to lower the passing score, the chief justice said there were no plans to lower it "at this time."