Chief Justice to press case on court cuts

 
Word is out on Gov. Brown’s new budget and its treatment of the nation’s largest state justice system, and the best that can be said is that some officials hope they can change his mind before the courts take more hits despite increasing California revenues. Otherwise, they say we can just be happy it isn’t getting that much worse than the cuts already announced for 2013,
 
There’s lots of coverage, but the San Jose Mercury News’ Howard Mintz, who covers legal affairs for the paper, has one of the better reports. He cites Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye expressing relief that the court branch isn’t being cut further, but adding that “she will now press her case with the governor and Legislature to restore some of the hundreds of millions of dollars lost in recent years, citing court closures, cuts in services and other strains on the California justice system.”
“This is January, not June,” the judge tole the paper when the budget was released last week. “We’d like to keep the dialogue open. This budget doesn’t answer our problems and our challenges.” Read more details here.