Judge Violated Welfare Mothers’ Rights, Court Rules

A San Diego County Superior Court judge overstepped his authority when he ordered women with children under 6 and on welfare to find a full-time job and get off aid, a state appellate court said Friday.

In a ruling that criticized Judge Thomas R. Murphy’s plan as “unfair” and “arbitrary,” the 4th District Court of Appeal said his orders in family law court violated the constitutional due process rights of the women.

Murphy’s job-search order was believed to be the first of its kind in California. Murphy, who is currently hearing family law cases in Vista, said he will accept the decision.

“It’s really not proper for me in any way to second-guess the appellate court,” he said. “They made the decision. I’ll follow the decision.”

An attorney for the women, Colleen Fearn of the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, said the opinion was a “clear win.”

But Shelley Anderson, 27, the San Diego State student in whose name the case was brought, said she had a “real mixed feeling” about the decision.

Anderson said she is “grateful” that she will be “able to finish school. That’s what this means to me personally.” But because only the concurring opinion, not the main one, detailed all of the legal roadblocks to the job-search orders, she said she is worried that Murphy or another judge could find a way to skirt the ruling.

“Because of the way it was written I don’t consider it a win overall,” she said.

The case began last year when, recently separated from her husband, Anderson was shouldering a full load of courses, working two part-time jobs and raising a son, Corey, who will be 6 next month.

Anderson was getting by, but only with the help of a $535 welfare check. That support was just a temporary crutch needed to see her through to graduation, Anderson said. She plans to graduate next June with a degree in women’s studies.

Last fall, Anderson was called to testify against her former husband in their child-support case. Murphy ordered her to find a full-time job and get off aid, even if it meant quitting school.

Under federal and state welfare regulations, however, a parent whose child is under 6 is not required to work to receive payments.

Murphy said he issued “large numbers” of similar orders. His authority for the policy, he said, was a state law requiring both parents to assist in raising their children.