Wilson Appoints S.F. Judge to State Supreme Court

Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Ming W. Chin, a scholarly San Francisco appellate judge, to the California Supreme Court on Thursday, giving the state high court its second justice with a minority background.

Chin, 53, is generally regarded as moderately conservative, but he is praised by liberals and confounds expectations on occasion by ruling for the defense in criminal cases and against business in civil disputes.

Chin, a Vietnam War veteran who earned a Bronze Star, is known as an engaging, thoughtful and independent jurist whose legal rulings show a strong command of technical, complex issues and a willingness to take risks. A state bar evaluating committee has given him the highest ranking a judicial candidate can receive.

At a news conference with Wilson at his side, Chin described himself as supportive of abortion rights and the death penalty but refused to state his position on affirmative action. Wilson has recently become a strong opponent of affirmative action.

“Only in America could the son of a Chinese immigrant farmer rise to sit on this state’s highest court,” said Chin, a slight, dapper man whose voice trembled as he accepted his appointment. He said his only regret was that his parents did not live to see him elevated to the high court. “They would have been very, very proud,” he said.

Chin, like other justices Wilson has appointed to the court, said he believes in judicial restraint. Courts should simply interpret laws rather than make them, Chin said Thursday.

With his affable manner and keen intellect, Chin is expected to become an influential member of the conservative court, probably staking out a middle position on many issues. Colleagues and analysts said his court rulings have not been politically or ideologically motivated.

“He will be a voice of moderation and will bring the court more to the center, where I think it ought to be,” said Justice Armand Arabian, a conservative who is retiring next month and whose seat Chin will take.

Arabian described Chin as “a very hard worker, extremely intelligent,” and as a judge “who has worked his way through the ranks.”

Justice Stanley Mosk, the court’s most liberal member, said Chin will be a “splendid addition” to the court. “In his Court of Appeal opinions, many of which I have read, he has impressed me as serious, thoughtful and industrious,” Mosk said.

University of Santa Clara law professor Gerald Uelmen, a criminal defense attorney, praised Chin for being open-minded and even courageous at times in his legal rulings. “I don’t think he really has an agenda,” Uelmen said, describing Chin’s appointment as “terrific.”

The youngest of eight children, Chin grew up on a potato farm in southern Oregon. His parents, who emigrated from Canton, did not speak English. Chin was educated by Jesuits, attending a Catholic boarding school in the Bay Area and receiving his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of San Francisco.

Chin served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, rising from first lieutenant to captain. He received a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal.

He began his legal career as an Oakland prosecutor and left after two years to join a private Oakland firm, where he practiced from 1973 to 1988. Former Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Chin to the Alameda County Superior Court in 1988 and elevated him two years later to the Court of Appeal.

Chin’s former partners at the Oakland firm said he handled business disputes and represented both employers and employees. The partners described their former colleague as unflappable, pragmatic and an excellent cross-examiner.

Chin has been active in groups designed to overcome ethnic prejudice and cites as his heroes Martin Luther King Jr., whom Chin once met, and Indian pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi, the latter because of his influence in Asia.

In applying for a judgeship in 1989, Chin wrote: “I am very proud to have opened some doors for others of my ancestry, but I will be most proud when it is no longer unusual for minorities to hold the kinds of positions in which I have had the privilege to serve.”

As an appellate judge, Chin declared DNA results inadmissible in a murder case, offending law enforcement and prosecutors. He also held that participants in a court dispute can be sued for discussing the case with the news media and refused in a surrogate parent case to award partial custody rights to a woman who agreed to bear a child for a $10,000 fee.

His court opinions have been scholarly, peppered with references from reading outside the legal field. His rapid ascent in the judicial branch is generally attributed to his talents rather than to political connections. He said he is not active in Republican politics, though his wife has contributed $600 to Wilson’s campaigns.

“It’s an excellent appointment,” said Court of Appeal Justice J. Anthony Kline, a Democrat who was appointed by former Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. “He is a thoughtful judge . . . a moderate judge . . . a judge who decides issues pretty much as he sees them rather than on the basis of a political agenda.”

Kline and others also praised the appointment because it puts another minority on the court. Justice Joyce Kennard, who is part Indonesian, is the only minority now serving.

Chin said his Chinese American heritage will give him “a different perspective on the court.” But he said he intends to be a “justice . . . for all Californians and not just a particular segment.”

Wilson, in response to a reporter’s question, said he did not choose Chin out of a desire to bring more ethnic diversity to the court. The governor called Chin a “vindication of my belief that if you afford opportunity, you will achieve the kind of diversity that is paramount in the minds of many of the defenders of affirmative action.”

Wilson had considered him for a court vacancy two years ago, and Chin was considered a leading candidate for Arabian’s seat.

Chin is expected to be easily approved by the Commission on Judicial Appointments and probably will take his seat on the court in March. He will be participating in decisions on whether the Boy Scouts of America can exclude agnostics and gays, the legality of drug testing and the role of DNA in criminal cases, an issue he already knows well.

Chin is Wilson’s third appointment to the court, and Wilson will make a fourth appointment to the seven-member court when Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas retires in May, making what has been known as the “Deukmejian court” into the “Wilson court.”

On the civil side, Chin probably will not alter the balance of the court substantially because it has increasingly become more moderate on non-criminal matters, lawyers who practice before the court said.

But in criminal cases, Chin could make a difference. Although he has been criticized as pro-prosecution, some defense lawyers view him as more likely than the court’s other conservatives to take an independent and careful look at criminal matters rather than consistently voting the prosecution’s way. The state high court affirms death sentences at one of the highest rates in the country.

Chin said in an interview that he already knows all of the court’s members. “I tend to bring people together to reach consensus,” he said, when asked the role he might play on the court. “I would certainly try to do that.”

Warren reported from Sacramento and Dolan from San Francisco.