Embattled Jurist Waxes Poetic on the Campaign Stump : And Now a Word From Justice Bird

The sight of a state chief justice, robeless and out on the campaign stump like a common politician, may catch some people by surprise.

But this kind of judicial campaigning seems destined to become commonplace as Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird fights to keep her office--a long fight that brought her to Los Angeles Friday where she read her own simple poetry decrying intolerance against the defenseless.

The difference between an idea and a right,

Depends upon someone to fight the good fight,

Depends on someone to strive ‘til they win,

So what happened before will not happen again.

Bird’s poem, entitled “A Day of Remembrance,” was inspired by the struggle of one man against U.S. internment throughout the Western states of more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II.

And, in a luncheon speech to the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation-Council, California’s highest judicial officer called up other episodes of racial hatred, past and present, as a warning against the dangers of “living through a period of impatience.”

For a listener, Bird’s speech seemed to invite comparison to her own political situation.

Along with three other Democrat-appointed justices on the state high court, she is under attack by conservative political figures and some law enforcement officials as too soft on crime. The four justices, plus a fifth appointed by Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, must stand for reelection 20 months from now, in November, 1986.

Voters have a chance only to say “yes” or “no” on giving the justices another 12 years on the court. There are no opposing candidates. Vacancies are filled by the governor.

This process is different than for U.S. Supreme Court justices, who never face the electorate with their lifetime presidential appointments.

Just how seriously Bird is taking the challenge is evident in the preparations being made by her newly chosen campaign consultant, Bill Zimmerman, who says he anticipates that television advertising costs for the chief justice’s campaign will run “upwards of $1 million, and perhaps several million.”

Zimmerman, part of a four-person Santa Monica campaign management operation hired by the chief justice, said it is still undecided what Bird’s own role in the campaign will be.

But he does pledge that “People are going to learn more about Rose Bird,” adding that emotional accusations leveled against her by opponents will be met squarely by “emotional” appeals on her behalf.

Bird told her audience Friday what she learned from Fred Korematsu’s 30-year battle to have the U.S. government admit that it was wrong in interning Japanese-Americans, a battle that ended last year with a federal court ruling on Korematsu’s behalf.

“He proved that one individual, standing alone against the government, can make a difference.”

Her message seemed to evoke a view of herself, there to defend the rights of others.

Remember when freedom was clearly your right

Provided you proved your skin was pure white?

Bird recalled that 130 years ago the Supreme Court of the State of California ruled that Asians were “a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior.”

Now, she said, the state again is in a “period of retrenchment concerning the Bill of Rights. . . . Frustration, fear and anger are very natural reactions when people feel their lives are being shaped by forces over which they can exercise little or no control.

“There is power in such emotions, but there is great danger as well,” she warned.

Imagine a horse stall with no light or heat,

No home, no possession, no shoes on your feet,

Imagine the cold Utah desert at night,

No charges, no hearings, just government’s might.

Never did the chief justice directly appeal for votes or address her own election. Neither did she confront the findings of a new statewide public opinion sampling by Mervin D. Field’s California Poll, which found crime the most pressing topic of the day, overtaking economic issues.

But she could hardly have put her views more clearly to her audience.

“The poor and minorities, whether religious or racial, are singled out as the object of anger and discrimination in our society not because they are the cause of the problems which are perceived, but because they are the least able to defend themselves from criticism and attack.”