Race Is On For Sohigian Judicial Seat

February 26, 2014 By
 
By L.A. Superior Court judicial election standards, we have a barn-burner of an election shaping up for the seat currently held by Judge Ronald Sohigian, who is retiring. The latest report is that four people may be running in the June primary, including former state lawmaker Charles M. Claderon.
 
Calderon’s brothers, state Sen. Ronald Calderon and former Assemblyman Thomas Calderon, are under indictment on federal corruption charges did nothing to change his mind, he told the MetNews website, which also cited newswire reports that Tom Calderon pled not guilty Friday and posted bail. Ron Calderon surrendered yesterday, pled not guilty, and was released on $50,000 bail.
 
The actual deadline for filing candidate papers is March 7 and the MetNews notes that none of the expected office-seekers had filed as of a few days ago. One of the anticipated candidates, Deputy District Attorney Efrain Aceves is now saying  he will not run. The judicial seat is formally Office No. 48 and you can follow the race at the MetNews.
Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , ,

The ABA Meeting Continues Big-Name Draw

August 12, 2013 By
Not that anybody is saying anything new, but at least the big American Bar Association meeting in San Francisco is hosting the biggest names to say the old stuff. Like a Supreme Court Justice coming out strongly in favor of increasing civic education.
 
The ABA website is doing a good job keeping up with the annual conference via social and traditional postings. It says “…. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy commended the American Bar Association for its efforts to call attention to the nation’s justice system, but he stressed that the ABA must do more with regard to civic education. Kennedy, speaking Saturday night at the Opening Assembly of the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, said the association “must insist that civic education be recommenced and revitalized because freedom is not something that’s on automatic pilot.”
 
Keep up with the legal elite here.
Filed Under: National Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Prisons Offer Lessons For Courts Rationing

August 5, 2013 By
There are lessons for civil justice advocates in the ongoing soap opera over California’s prison overcrowding. One is that the state can and will shift its responsibilities to counties, in this case moving inmates to county jails. Another is that the “miracle” of Gov. Brown’s “balanced budget” hinges on many such moves to effectively de-fund agencies. And yet another is that it may take years and years, but the chickens do come home to roost.
 
The news is that a U.S. Supreme Court decision pretty much gives the state a late December deadline for meeting the terms of a 2009 ruling by a  special three-judge panel. That panel said that the state’s 33 prisons were too overcrowded to provide prisoners adequate medical and mental health care. The governor has already met much of the court’s demand from what he calls a “realignment program,” which simply shifted low-level offenders from state prisons to county jails.
 
It’s unclear what, exactly, the state will do. But it’s worth noting that they have already shifted many “low-level” non-violent inmates to the counties. That means those left in prisons are those that did not make the cut for county jails. And yet another lesson for the civil courts, where cutbacks have also impacted the ability of the disabled to attain public services, that the state sometimes responds only when ordered to respond.
 
As usual, Howard Mintz (@hmintz)at the Mercury News newspaper makes a complex situation easy to understand. Read his article here. 
 
 
Follow CCM on Twitter @CACourtsMonitor
Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
Newer Posts»