Governor Accuses Bird of Ignoring Public’s Will

Gov. George Deukmejian pressed his reelection campaign attacks on California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird Thursday, saying that her opposition to a number of ballot measures and her votes to overturn the death penalty prove that she is against “anything that comes from the public.”

“She just seems to follow whatever her personal view is rather than heeding the dictates of justice and giving great deference to the will of the people,” Deukmejian said during a radio call-in show in San Diego.

Deukmejian, in San Diego and later during a news conference in Los Angeles, cited ballot measures such as 1978’s tax-cut initiative, Proposition 13, and Proposition 8, the so-called “victims’ bill of rights,” approved by voters in 1982 as examples of legal decisions by Bird that went against the will of the electorate.

The Republican governor told reporters at the Los Angeles Civic Center, “In every single instance, when those issues have gone before the court, she has ruled against the people.”

Deukmejian’s stops in San Diego and Los Angeles are part of an active reelection campaign schedule he has maintained since Tuesday’s primary election. Strategically, he wants to get off to a fast start against Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, the Democrat he will face in the general election Nov. 7. He is using the Bird issue to hammer at Bradley, hoping to portray him as indecisive, because the mayor will not say whether he supports the confirmation of the chief justice, who is up for another 12-year term on the high court in the November election.

On Thursday, Deukmejian again cited his views on Bird as a major difference with the mayor.

Responding to the governor’s comments, aides to both Bird and Bradley accused Deukmejian of attempting to politicize the court to further his own reelection campaign.

Steven Glazer, communications director for Bird’s Committee to Conserve the Courts, said Deukmejian’s comments “reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the courts.”

“Judges are not politicians wearing black robes,” he said. “They are sworn to uphold the Constitution, yet he is holding them up to political standards. In essence, the governor is calling for the abolition of constitutional review of initiatives.”

Glazer also said: “The notion that the chief justice is against the people is nonsense. No justice in recent years has been more pro-people, pro-family, pro-worker, pro-consumer, pro-environment or pro-victim than Rose Bird. But that’s because the law favors those groups, and her decisions uphold the law.”

Answering for Bradley, Dee Dee Myers, the mayor’s deputy campaign press secretary, noted that the governor so far has refused Bradley’s offer to debate.

“The governor should be willing to face Tom Bradley and talk about the issue,” she said. “The mayor feels that we have to protect the independence of the judiciary and it shouldn’t become a political football in an election year.”

During the radio call-in show in San Diego, Deukmejian seemed to anticipate the criticism.

“I think you can have judicial independence, but that does not mean that you exclude, if you will, public accountability. . . . None of us are independent from the people, none of us, including justices of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Deukmejian was referring to Supreme Court actions on Proposition 13 and Proposition 8, as well as rulings on a Republican reapportionment plan that was to have gone before voters in 1983 and a 1984 initiative proposal calling for a constitutional amendment for a balanced federal budget.

In the case of the balanced budget proposal and the GOP plan for redrawing legislative and congressional districts, Bird voted with the court majority to strike the measures from the ballot as unconstitutional.

The two other initiatives were approved by voters and were subsequently upheld by the court, with Bird voting to invalidate them. Bird was the lone opponent to Proposition 13. In the case of the victims’ bill of rights, Bird was joined by two other justices, who likewise voted to strike down the measure.

Death Penalty

Thursday’s comments represented an escalation of the governor’s attacks on Bird, which began months ago and have generally centered on her decisions in death penalty cases. Bird, under fire from a broad range of politicians and political groups, has voted to strike down every death penalty case that has come before the court.

From his San Diego appearance, it was clear that Bird remains a potent issue among voters. Deukmejian was asked his views on Bird at least four times in the 50-minute call-in show, which also included questions on issues ranging from coastal development to toxic waste.

During the Los Angeles news conference, Deukmejian was reminded that he opposed Proposition 13 in 1978. He said this was not inconsistent with his criticism of Bird, because while he did not support Proposition 13, he supported a rival tax-cut measure sponsored by the Legislature and then threw his support behind the landmark initiative after it passed.

The governor said he still had not made up his mind on whether to oppose the confirmation of Justices Joseph Grodin and Cruz Reynoso, other members of the Supreme Court’s liberal majority who will appear on the November ballot.

At the news conference, Deukmejian received the endorsement of six statewide law enforcement groups representing police chiefs, Highway Patrol officers and state police. The governor was presented with a badge proclaiming him as “California’s top cop.” Bradley earlier was endorsed by the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, a statewide group that represents rank-and-file officers.