SAN DIEGO : Court May Be Told to Reveal Calendars

In a hearing prompted by a probe of improper influence peddling on the San Diego Superior Court bench, a state appeal court signaled Monday that it is likely to overturn a Superior Court ruling and open to public review the daily records of local judges’ official calendars.

Prompted by media requests for the records, found in what are called “minute books” usually kept by each Superior Court department, a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal went so far as to ask lawyers for the San Diego-based Copley Press how the court could best draft an order that would make clear that the books are open for review.

The minute books contain a clerk’s rough notes of the daily list of what cases and which attorneys came before a judge. The state Commission on Judicial Performance is examining whether gifts from attorneys to San Diego judges influenced the outcome of any cases. The books might show which lawyers appeared before local judges.

Last month, Arthur Jones, the presiding judge of the 71-judge San Diego Superior Court, blocked reporters’ access to the minute books, saying it was unclear whether they were public records. That action led to the appeal, filed by the Copley Press, which publishes the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The 4th District court has 90 days to rule in the case.