Legal Pad

Meet Tigar, Hear Him Purr

[Vanessa Blum]

There was a yin and yang to U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar’s investiture ceremony Thursday afternoon at the federal courthouse in San Francisco.
 
The Northern District's newest judge was lauded first by a lover — longtime friend Dacher Keltner, director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and an expert in compassion, gratitude and other positive emotions.
 
Keltner described Tigar as a “searcher” with an appreciation for the “sublime.” (Practitioners take note: According to Keltner, if Tigar ever takes a pause on the bench, turns away and returns with misty eyes, you’ll know your argument is resonating.)
 
Next up to fete Tigar was a fighter — veteran S.F. trial lawyer John Keker, who hired Tigar in 1994 fresh from a stint in the federal public defender’s office.
 
Th ex-Marine described the young Tigar as a talented and brash attorney who was “a little cocky sometimes.” He added: “We made him a partner as quickly as we could.”

The Keltner-Keker line up was like having a speech from the Dali Lama followed up by martial arts actor Chuck Norris, Tigar joked when it was his turn at the podium in the ceremonial courtroom.

The induction was classic Northern District, with speeches about justice and service, and a little good-natured ribbing of the new member of the club, in the presence of local legal luminaries from the Ninth Circuit, California Supreme Court, the Alameda bench (where Tigar served for 11 years), along with big-name litigators and judicial vetters like Cristina Arguedas.

With an audience of nearly every judge from the Northern District, Keker declared: "When the job is done right, district judges are the most important people in America," because they decide "how free we are."

"Judge Jon Tigar, we tell you we are all counting on you to protect us."

Chief Judge Claudia Wilken performed the ceremonial swearing in, assisted in donning the robe by Tigar's wife Caroline Avery — a "fully recovered" attorney, as he put it.

His high-school and college-aged sons led the pledge of allegiance with Tigar’s 96-year-old grandmother and his father, the legendary human rights lawyer Michael Tigar, looking on. (Also in attendance: Northern District judicial nominee Bill Orrick, whose appointment has lagged in the U.S. Senate for more than nine months. Both Tigar and Orrick were recommended to the White House by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and nominated in June 2012.)

True to Keltner’s predictions, Tigar was visibly moved by the ceremony and the gathering of supporters. He choked up — and a pin drop could be heard — when he recalled his clerkship in Alabama for Judge Robert Vance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 1989, the year Vance was murdered by an angry litigant.
 
“I’m sorry Judge Vance isn’t here,” said Tigar, who keeps the judge’s photo in his chambers.
 
Tigar pledged to approach his role with humility and gratitude and to remember the difference “between the size of the office and the size of the person.”
 
As a judge in Alameda County, Tigar said he posted a quote from the Book of Proverbs on the back side of the bench that read: “If one gives answer before he hears, it is folly and shame.”

Is New Funding Formula Key to Governor's Judicial Happiness?

[Cheryl Miller]

In the quest to answer Governor Jerry Brown's call to make trial court funding more equitable, a group of judges and court executives may have come up with a solution.

The Funding Methodology Subcommittee, a Judicial Council bunch led by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl, has unveiled a model that purports to link individual court allocations with their workloads, not their historical -- and historically unequal -- funding levels.

The formula is complex and a little wonky, and it still has some holes. It would be phased in through 2018. Bottom line, some-better off courts would lose money under the plan while others that have gone begging would gain. But Earl and her subcommittee colleagues aren't making public yet the full list of winners and losers.

"It's a very, very rough draft, and there's more tweaking to be done," she said Tuesday after briefing the Trial Court Funding Working Group. (That's the panel appointed by the governor and chief justice to analyze the success of 16 years of state funding for courts).

She did say her own court would lose funding under the plan. So would Santa Clara County Superior Court. Courts in Riverside, San Bernardino, Kings, Riverside and Los Angeles would also benefit, at least under the formula's first draft.

In addition to tweaking its model, Earl's group has a formidable sales job ahead of it. Will judges from courts that would lose money still back the plan? Will organized labor?

The group's best hope may be convincing the governor that the funding formula is fair, or at least more fair than the current method. A satisfied governor may be more inclined to retore branch funding, and that should mean more money for everyone. That may be why the proposal seems to have some momentum behind it.

Earl's subcommittee is presenting its model to judges and court executives in private meetings around the state. The Sacramento judge said she expects to make the proposal final before it goes to the Judicial Council in late April.

Ninth Circuit Offers a Window Into Maui

[Scott Graham]

If you wanted to attend the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in Maui earlier this month but were pinching pennies like Senator Charles Grassley, the court is now offering the next best thing: video of the most popular seminars and ceremonies.

Among the highlights are Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's welcoming remarks to the conference; a conversation between Kennedy, Ninth Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon and three other conference representatives; and Quinn Emanuel partner Kathleen Sullivan's review of the 2011-12 Supreme Court term.

Grassley's severe criticism of the Ninth Circuit for scheduling its conference in Hawaii -- which led to the court postponing next year's conference to 2014 -- was clearly on the minds of conferees. "If the American public knows, and they should know, what we do at this conference, they would be immensely proud," Kennedy told the conference.

"We look forward to seeing you at the next conference in Monterey," said Ninth Circuit Judge Richard Clifton of Hawaii, introducing the last seminar of the conference. "We also look forward to being able to welcome this conference back to our islands at some point in we hope the not-too-distant future."

Trial Court Reserves Still on Negotiating Table

[Cheryl Miller]

Four days before the state constitutional deadline to pass a budget, the spending plan for California's courts remains a murky work in progress. But an Assembly document released Monday may offer a few clues.

The 108-page "plan" the Assembly Budget Committee will consider Tuesday suggests the judicial branch won't escape the $544 million in cuts proposed by the governor. The state's swipe of $240 million in construction funds appears to be a foregone conclusion. The judiciary is also expected to lose another $300 million, but whether it all comes from trial court reserves as the governor proposed was the topic of ongoing negotiations late Monday.

The Assembly's budget plan hints that lawmakers are considering a different formula. One proposal floated around the Capitol Monday called for a 15 percent cut to the Administrative Office of the Courts -- lower than the 30 percent one assemblyman put forward last month. Some $240 million would still be drained from trial court reserves and another $45 million in cuts would be made at the Judicial Council's discretion. Higher appellate filing fees are also on the table.

That could all change by Tuesday's committee meeting. But it's clear that the governor's plan to effectively end trial courts' ability to keep reserves is unpopular with lawmakers. What's less obvious is whether, with so many other cuts in the state budget, the governor's office and legislators have any interest in sparring over the courts' issues.

The Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

Chief Justice Calls Out Lawmakers Over AB 1208 Shenanigans

SACRAMENTO – The battle in the state Assembly over AB 1208 may be over, but Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye isn’t walking away without a few parting shots.

In a speech to court executives and presiding judges last week, the chief justice accused Assembly members of parroting “meritless, false claims” about the Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts during the AB 1208 floor debate on Jan. 30.

(Here’s the entire 19-minute speech. The AB 1208 discussion starts around the 5:15 mark. The AOC has also released an abridged version of the speech.) 

Cantil-Sakauye also accused Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, of reneging on pre-vote assurances that members would be allowed “to vote their conscience, that it wouldn’t be the subject of political maneuvering.” The chief justice said she was disturbed to learn that, after only 32 Assembly members voted “aye” on the first roll call, Perez worked the floor to help bill author Charles Calderon find another nine votes to secure AB 1208’s passage.

“It’s one thing to lose an argument based on merit. It’s another thing when the facts are not represented,” Cantil-Sakauye said. The bill, she added, isn’t headed to the Senate “on its own legs.”

In response, Perez spokesman John Vigna would only say “The Chief Justice certainly has an opportunity to present her case to the Senate.”

Maybe the chief justice’s remarks were simply aimed at rallying her troops for the possible fight ahead in the Senate. And only she and the speaker really know what was promised or not promised in terms of pressure on Assembly members.

But on its face, the indignation comes across as a bit naïve, especially when you consider Cantil-Sakauye worked for two years in the Deukmejian administration. Anyone who watched the AB 1208 debate in the Assembly Judiciary Committee last May could see the speaker was behind this bill from the start – and that he was willing to use his political clout to move it. And as for the speaker working votes after the first roll call on AB 1208, that’s the sausage-making process that goes on in the Capitol. Love it or hate it, it happens all the time, particularly on bills that are a tough vote for lawmakers.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has said he has no immediate plans to send AB 1208 to a committee hearing. In her speech, Cantil-Sakauye said she is grateful for the time-out and the time it gives the branch to focus on the budget. The judiciary, she said, is seeking another $100 million from the state’s general fund, $50 million in “redirections” from within the branch budget, $100 million from trial courts’ reserves “for [their] own needs” plus the $50 million in new fees included in the governor’s spending proposal.

That’s a big wish list from a branch whose leader just poked the Assembly and its leader with a sharp verbal stick.

Jubilation at Ninth Circuit's Prop 8 Ruling

Supporters of gay marriage gathered Tuesday at the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in anticipation of a ruling on the challenge to Proposition 8, which outlawed marriage between same-sex couples. The court's 2-1 decision finding Prop 8 unconstitutional was greeted with cheers, smiles, and fist-pumping from the crowd outside the courthouse in San Francisco.

Avoiding Your 'That's Not How We Used to Do It' Moment

[Vitaly Gashpar]

New judge assignments mean new rules — which can mean surprises for lawyers appearing in their courtrooms. On Tuesday, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers invited four judges with new assignments to preview what attorneys can expect.

Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg took over Santa Clara County’s complex litigation department in January. When asked what attorneys should know about him, Kleinberg reflected on his years of experience as an attorney — “I know what you are doing, and I know what you’re not doing,” he said. “Come prepared!”

Kleinberg emphasized that there will be changes to the department.

Iowa Justices Pay for Same-Sex Marriage Vote

[Scott Graham]

In a development likely to send shivers down the spine of any judge who has one, it appears that the vote to legalize same-sex marriage in Iowa has cost three Supreme Court justices their jobs. Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices David Baker and Michael Streit are being voted out by about 55 to 45 percent each with about 90 percent of the vote counted. No others are on the ballot.

The Iowa Supreme Court voted 7-0 in April 2009 that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was illegal.

Ternus was originally appointed to the court by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who was again elected governor tonight after being out of the office for 12 years. Branstad had declined to say whether he supported or opposed retaining the justices.

No Iowa Supreme Court justice had been voted off the court since the retention system was created some 50 years ago.

California voters are reacting differently. Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, who voted to legalize same-sex marriage in 2008 and dissented from the decision to uphold Proposition 8 in 2009, is cruising to retention by a wide margin along with Justice Ming Chin in early voting.

 

 

No Layoffs for S.F. Court Staff

[Kate Moser]

There won’t be layoffs at San Francisco Superior Court –- at least for now.

The court had readied 122 layoff notices and was prepared to start sending them out yesterday, depending on the governor’s revised budget that was unveiled Friday.

“We’re abandoning, for now, a plan to take a cut in staff,” Presiding Judge James McBride said this morning. “We can’t keep our operation going at the level it does if we cut staff.”

Asked how the court will make it without layoffs, McBride said a "voluntary separation program" that some employees are signing up for is “an important part of our future,” and that there are “other strategies we’re going to look at to tighten our belts and make it.”

Once the budget is passed, he noted, “then we’ll be able to know predictably how many nights a week we’ll have to eat beans and toast.”

Prosecutors Have a Good Hair Day

[Kate Moser] 

A faithful cadre of prosecutors from the San Francisco district attorney’s office turned up Friday to get their locks shorn at the 2010 “Buzz the Fuzz” fundraiser for Wish Upon A Star, a law enforcement foundation that raises money for kids with cancer.

Pictured below are gang unit chief Wade Chow grinning half-buzzed (left), then getting the full shave (middle). Narcotics prosecutor Richard Hechler, a veteran head-buzzer who raised about $7,000 this year, said he’ll give donors of $100 or more a portrait of his neon green Mohawk (right). “It helps me wring a little more out of them,” he noted. You can watch his metamorphosis in the video below.

Video by Jason Doiy and photos (click to enlarge) by Hillary Jones-Mixon

Buzz The Fuzz from Cal Law on Vimeo.