Rose Bird’s Interview

I hope Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird continues to grant interviews like that reported in The Times (Nov. 23). Her opposition can stay home if she talks enough.

Accusations of ideological court-packing sound pretty empty when Gov. George Deukmejian’s two appointees, Justice Malcom M. Lucas and Justice-designate Edward Panelli, are universally respected, well-qualified jurists, while former Gov. Jerry Brown bypassed numerous well qualified women jurists to appoint Bird who had no judicial experience.

I do not like the attitude displayed by her statement that “it is a beautiful thing that a ‘little’ (hers, not mine) Hispanic can look up here and see Cruz Reynoso in the highest judicial office in the state.”

All of us who are members of a sub-group, by race, sex, creed or national origin, are interested in having our own sub-group represented. Membership in the sub-group, however, is not enough to gain our support. The job must still be well done. If it is not, the representative does more harm than good for the credibility of the sub-group.

I do not think the state, or women, or Hispanics have been well served by this court. And my dissatisfaction goes way beyond the death penalty cases. Also on my list are the following: Granting public employees the right to strike; allowing criminals to sue victims for personal injuries suffered at the scene of the crime; allowing owners of stolen property to be held responsible for damages caused by a thief in using the stolen property; expanding liability in numerous situations when there was no foreseeability of harm or ability to prevent it; and disregard for the voters’ constitutional right to legislate by initiative by diluting Proposition 13, by helping Assembly Speaker Willie Brown circumvent the legislative cost-cutting initiative, by keeping reapportionment off the ballot, by relieving the courts of the requirement of the Victims’ Bill of Rights initiative to enhance sentences for repeat offenders, etc., etc.

I would really like the opportunity to see what Supreme Court justices of the caliber of Justice Lucas and Justice-designate Panelli would do with these issues. Hopefully, after the next election Deukmejian will have the opportunity to select more justices of this caliber, and bring the California Supreme Court back to the level of respect it enjoyed before it was packed by Jerry Brown.

PATRICIA A. FISHER

Arcadia