Judicial Performance

In an article on the California Commission on Judicial Performance (Commentary, June 29), UC Prof. Ruth Rosen inaccurately quoted me as saying that at national meetings personnel from other state commissions have mocked the California Commission. I am also quoted out of context criticizing certain private admonishments of judges as being too lenient.

I have never spoken to Rosen so she must have obtained the quotes from a San Francisco newspaper article that had misquoted me. Rosen at least might have noted that I repudiated those quotes in a lengthy letter published in that same newspaper.

If she interviewed me, I would have told her that the California Commission and its excellent staff are highly regarded by their counterparts in other states. The basis of the inaccurate quote that I and my colleagues have “mocked” the California Commission was a “mock” cross examination at an annual training meeting several years before the present executive director was hired. I personally chose the California Commission for the “mock” session as a teaching tool because the commission was, and still is, one of the best and most highly regarded in the country. The lively, interesting format demonstrated to the conferees from 40 states that any one of us could be cross-examined on disciplinary cases.

The San Francisco reporter misconstrued my story of the “mock” proceeding and Rosen used a stale, repudiated quote without checking with the primary source.

As to lenient private admonishments, any person, in hindsight and without knowing all of the facts at hand, could criticize some private discipline in every state in this country. At every national meeting of judicial conduct commission staff, we analyze and critique disciplinary decisions from numerous states. That, too, was misinterpreted by the San Francisco reporter and the misquote was then used by Rosen.

Every state needs to reform disciplinary procedures to some extent. But Rosen should base her arguments on the facts.

GERALD STERN

Administrator

New York Commission on Judicial Conduct