Burger Opens New Site of Appeals Court, Seeks Constitution Crusade

U.S. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, formally opening a controversial new regional headquarters of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, called on federal and state judges Monday to help lead a national effort to teach the nation’s students about the origins of the Constitution.

Burger, chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution, made his appeal to the nation’s judiciary after a two-day meeting of the commission in San Diego to lay plans for the 200th anniversary celebration next year.

Providing some controversy of his own in San Diego before leaving for the courthouse dedication in Pasadena, Burger added his view to one of the most debated judicial topics in California by announcing his opposition to the use of elections as a tool in selecting judges.

While saying he was not familiar enough with the issues to comment directly on California’s Nov. 4 judicial retention vote on California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, Burger criticized the idea that judges should somehow strive to be representative of society and cited “integrity” as the only characteristic they should symbolize.

“I am against the election of judges in any state under any circumstances,” the chief justice of the United States said in response to questions from a crowd of about 200 students at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Responding to Burger’s San Diego comments, a spokesman for Bird’s campaign committee called his remarks a “ringing endorsement for the central theme” of Bird’s reconfirmation effort, while one of the groups opposing Bird said Californians have preserved judicial independence while simultaneously holding judges accountable for their performance.

In Pasadena, Burger found himself in a continuing controversy of a different kind--but not one that had anything to do with the brief history on the U.S. Constitution, which he delivered to an overflow crowd of almost 1,000 judges and lawyers on hand for the courthouse dedication.

The new courthouse itself, a 105-year-old Pasadena landmark that was once the Vista del Arroyo Hotel, remained a sore point to some of the 9th Circuit judges who sat behind Burger in their black judicial robes while he addressed them on plans for the Bicentennial.

Four of the judges listening to Burger, all now housed in the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, have refused to move into the new building for a variety of reasons, including their view that Los Angeles is the more logical location for the court’s Southern California headquarters.

Still boycotting the new courthouse, even as they were in attendance as Burger spoke Monday, were U.S. Circuit Judges Harry Pregerson, Arthur L. Alarcon, William A. Norris and Stephen Reinhardt, all committed to staying in downtown Los Angeles.

One of the holdouts said he didn’t even want to be at Monday’s opening ceremony, but could not think of a good excuse for failing to show up.

‘Command Appearance’

“This is sort of a command appearance,” he said. Pregerson, observing that the new courthouse was an attractive facility, had some kind words about the building, but made it clear he intends to remains in the U.S. Courthouse, near his birthplace and in the same building where his father once worked as a mailman.

“This is a nice place to visit, but my heart belongs to Temple and Spring,” said Pregerson.

Chief Judge James R. Browning of San Francisco, presiding over the ceremony with Burger, took the view that individual judges are free to reject the new courthouse if they wish to do so, but that it remains the new center for the 9th Circuit in Southern California.

“This is the southern home of the 9th Circuit now,” Browning said. “The court consists of 28 active judges, and this is where they will all meet, even if they want to have their offices someplace else. Ultimately it will be the first choice of all of them.”

Crusade on Constitution

While Browning and other 9th Circuit judges continued a soft diplomatic campaign to eventually woo the holdouts to move to Pasadena at some point in the future, Burger was calling on all of them to join in his constitutional education crusade in the coming year.

“Many of us have forgotten how difficult it was for us to get that Constitution,” the chief justice said. “We have had one revolution and one Constitution. No other society and no other country in human history has been able to do that.

“This bicentennial gives us an opportunity in this country to give ourselves a history and civics lesson on what our Constitution means,” Burger continued. “Federal judges and state judges should have an active part in the whole program, speaking at high schools and colleges.”

Jim Schachter reported from San Diego