Appeal Court Will Hear Challenge on Welfare Edict

The 4th District Court of Appeal will hear oral arguments in an unusual legal challenge centering on a Superior Court judge’s policy of ordering mothers on welfare to look for work.

In a notice received Tuesday, attorneys for Judge Thomas R. Murphy and the Legal Aid Society of San Diego were asked to argue their opposing positions on May 9 before Justices Howard Wiener, William Todd and Richard Huffman.

The appellate court is considering the society’s claim that Murphy violated state and federal welfare law by directing welfare mothers appearing before him to look for employment and get off government aid. The society has asked the court to bar Murphy from issuing such “job-search orders” and to declare his “private workfare program” unconstitutional.

Murphy, who issued the orders routinely for two years while serving as supervising judge of Family Court in downtown San Diego, recently transferred to the North County Superior Court bench.

His attorney, David Niddrie, said the request for oral argument suggests the court views the case as one of “significant public interest.”

“I have a feeling there is a close question here, and the court wants to grill the attorneys firsthand about the relevant law,” Niddrie said.

Murphy, 52, maintains that state laws requiring parents to provide for their children to the “full extent of their ability” gave him authority to direct welfare mothers, who typically came before him for divorces or on child support matters, to look for work. The society, supported in its position by the Volunteer Lawyer Program of San Diego, charges that Murphy has exceeded the jurisdiction of a judge in making such orders.