Lucas Likely to Be Confirmed, Sworn In Today

Little opposition has emerged to the nomination of Justice Malcolm M. Lucas and it is widely anticipated that he will be confirmed and sworn in today as the 26th chief justice of California.

Two federal judges, the president of the State Bar and two of Lucas’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are among those scheduled to testify in his behalf at a hearing before the state Judicial Appointments Commission.

Gov. George Deukmejian is to be on hand to administer the oath of office to his former law partner and the man he chose to succeed Rose Elizabeth Bird in the state’s highest judicial office.

No nominee to the state Supreme Court has been rejected by the commission in 47 years. The three-member panel will include Justice Allen E. Broussard, who has served as acting chief justice since the departure of Bird on Jan. 5; state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp; and Appellate Justice Lester W. Roth, senior presiding justice of the state Court of Appeal.

Both Van de Kamp and Roth, along with Bird, voted to confirm Lucas, 59, when he was first named to the court by Deukmejian in 1984.

‘Grave Concern’

The main witness scheduled to testify against Lucas is Nathaniel Colley Sr., western regional counsel for the NAACP. Colley declined Wednesday to discuss his testimony. But he has been quoted by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as expressing “grave concern” over the dissent Lucas issued in August, 1985, in a case involving the exclusion of racial minorities from juries.

In that case, the court held that prosecutors could not systematically exclude Spanish-surnamed people from juries on the assumption that they would be sympathetic to Latino defendants. The court had reached a similar conclusion in a landmark ruling involving black jurors in 1978.

Lucas, in a two-paragraph dissent, said he believed the 1978 decision was “incorrectly decided and should be re-examined.”

The exclusion of jurors for racial reasons has long been controversial. It was not until last April that the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled, in a 7-2 decision, that prospective jurors could not be removed solely because they are the same race as the defendant. The court also said that when challenged, prosecutors must meet a heavy burden of showing racially neutral reasons for excluding such jurors.

In all, 14 witnesses, including Lucas himself, are scheduled to testify at today’s hearing.

The first six, who will speak in favor of the nominee, include state Supreme Court Justices Stanley Mosk and Edward A. Panelli; Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. District Judge David W. Williams of Los Angeles; Orville (Jack) Armstrong of Los Angeles, president of the State Bar; and Richard Alexander of San Jose, a member of the Bar’s board of governors.

The impact of any expressed concerns by Colley over Lucas’ racial views could be lessened by testimony from Williams, a black jurist who testified in 1984 that Lucas “harbors no ill will or bigotry” toward any racial group.

Three people, including one identified as Kozmick Layde, are listed as neutral on Lucas’ nomination but have asked to testify about what were generally described as “concerns about the judicial system.”

Besides Colley, two others--Los Angeles attorney Stephen Yagman and Charles Louda of Livermore-- have asked to speak against the nomination.

Yagman testified against Lucas’ nomination in 1984, claiming that as a federal district judge Lucas had been biased against people who brought suit against the government.

Louda appeared before the commission in 1985 during Panelli’s confirmation hearing, criticizing Deukmejian for making what Louda considered “political” appointments to the courts.

Carol Slater Frederick of Los Angeles, former chair of the State Bar commission that made a non-binding evaluation of Lucas’ record, is also scheduled to testify.

If confirmed as expected, Lucas would take over as chief justice upon his swearing-in, heading the state’s 1,400-member judiciary as well as its seven-member highest court. Lucas would face voter confirmation as chief justice in 1990.

The governor has not yet named the three jurists who would fill the vacancies created by the departure of Bird and Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph R. Grodin, who were defeated in the November election.