Responding to a Sacramento Bee question, “What did we learn from the June primary election, and why?,” former Chief Justice Ronald George said that “Californians face periodic threats to politicize their courts’ independence.”
Chief Justice George cited the election defeats of three Supreme Court justices in 1986 “based on death penalty decisions” and of a superior court judge in 1970 because of “his school-desegregation ruling.” (See here and here.) He continued, “This week’s successful recall of a Santa Clara judge because of a rape sentence, and unsuccessful campaign to remove four San Francisco judges solely because they were appointed by a Republican governor, echo a past era in California and mirror the unfortunate processes of several other states.” (See here.)
