Measure F and Judicial Ethics

* Re “Measure F Appeal Will be Heard in San Diego” (March 10):

“Cowardly” is the worst thing you can call a judge. Judges are supposed to be, above all, independent. That is what The Times quoted UC Irvine’s political science department chairman as calling the Court of Appeal in Santa Ana because the six-justice panel recused itself from the Measure F (anti-airport) appeal.

The professor, Mark Petracca, an airport opponent, suggested that the justices feared recall if they heard the appeal and voted against popular opinion, which is strongly against the airport.

Perhaps the justices believed that no matter where you live in the county, you are directly affected by whether a new airport goes in at El Toro. I know that as a Mission Viejo resident, I strongly oppose an airport at El Toro and would be hard pressed to be fair to pro-airport advocates.

Equally plausibly, the justices may have believed that if they heard the appeal, citizens reasonably might question whether there was the appearance of a conflict of interest between their public duty and their private interests as residents. If that were to happen, public respect for the rule of law would decline, much as it did after the U.S Supreme Court ruled the second time in Bush v. Gore.

In either case, the justices well may have concluded that the judicial canons of ethics required them to step aside. The decision had to have been made easier for them because there were other courts of appeal readily available to the parties, in San Diego, Los Angeles or Riverside, that had no such actual or apparent conflict of interest. (Supreme Courts have no such luxury.)

STUART JASPER

Irvine

* I wonder why we cannot get a fair hearing by Orange County judges. Is it perhaps that they are fearful of the political fallout whatever their decision might be? It seems to me--especially since the “Florida Fiasco”--that more and more, the judiciary is more concerned with politics than justice.

MARC MARCUS

Laguna Woods

* The hypocrisy of the anti-airport NIMBYs is really showing now. Before the election, Measure F was about the health and safety of our communities, which was the reason given for including toxic waste dumps and jails in the initiative. After the election, Measure F became a mandate against the airport, even though many citizens voted for F to eliminate any chance of a toxic dump in their community.

DAVE BENT

Newport Beach