The Mercury News reports on a former Olympic champion’s tweet against the retention of Justice Carol Corrigan. The basis for his opposition is Justice Corrigan’s dissenting view 10 years ago that the California Constitution does not provide a right to marriage for same-sex couples.
The tweet says that Justice Corrigan “voted against same sex marriage.” It does not mention that, besides her constitutional analysis, her concurring and dissenting opinion begins, “In my view, Californians should allow our gay and lesbian neighbors to call their unions marriages.” (In re Marriage Cases (2008) 43 Cal.4th 757, 878.)
More important, of course, is the tweet’s attack on judicial independence. It is enormously damaging when a conscientious judge is removed by the voters because they disagree with a particular decision, as when three Iowa Supreme Court justices were defeated because of their votes in favor of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Whether the attacks come from the left or the right, the harm to the judiciary is substantial.
