Governor Tells Businessmen to Help Oust Bird

Charging that decisions of the state Supreme Court have been bad for business, Gov. George Deukmejian suggested Thursday that business leaders work for the defeat of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and three other justices who face voter confirmation on next year’s general election ballot.

“You should keep in mind the importance of the decisions that are made by that court and how it might be very helpful . . . if you had decisions that were not so burdensome and onerous as some have been in the past few years,” Deukmejian told business leaders gathered at St. Mary’s College in this community east of Oakland.

Later, the governor told reporters he could not name a specific court decision that had harmed business. “I’m certainly not in a position to enumerate them all,” he said.

And the governor repeated earlier statements that he would not take part in any organized campaign to unseat Bird, his longtime antagonist, and Associate Justices Cruz Reynoso, Joseph Grodin and Stanley Mosk.

“I’m not going to be involved,” he said.

Eager to Make Appointments

Deukmejian’s remarks about the high court came during a brief question-and-answer period after he delivered a luncheon speech at a symposium for business executives.

“So far I’ve only been able to make one appointment to the state Supreme Court,” he said. “I’m very hopeful and anxious I might be able to make a few more.”

Shortly afterward, Deukmejian explained to reporters that he was merely “encouraging the business community in California to connect up in their minds the significance of election of justices of the Supreme Court to the manner in which they would be able to operate in our state.”

The governor said he first heard the complaint about the state Supreme Court from business people in New York several years ago. The criticism has been echoed by California executives as well, he said.

“People in business in this state have expressed on many occasions that the decisions interpreting laws that have been passed have, generally speaking, made it more costly for employers to operate in this state,” Deukmejian said.

“I don’t think anybody has any doubt that the philosophy of the majority of the members of the California Supreme Court is a very liberal philosophy. I don’t have a case to cite for you. There have been any number of them.”