Steven Perren’s Nomination

In a letter Aug. 19, William Patterson, a local practitioner of 30 years, offers us his obsequious defense of the nomination of Justice Steven Perren to our state high court. He takes umbrage with the call I made that local reporters have enough and more reason to investigate the Perren nomination to our state high court, only because Mr. Perren’s premier claim to fame is his effort to put together a Juvenile Center Complex. With this scant background combined with lackluster academic credentials, should not eyebrows be raised when any member of a local Superior Court catapults to the appellate court and becomes a state high court nominee, all in a short span of three years?

Patterson cites Perren’s “reputation for commitment and excellence.” Fine rhetoric, but commitment and excellence to what he does not say. High court nominees deal with an array of complex legal matters and not infrequently are called to interpret and apply federal legislation and the U.S. Constitution. A superior and clear intellect is indispensable for the job. Yet Perren’s meager record of legal opinions while on the appellate court is hardly the stuff of excellence.

With all of this, why is it not proper to posit the theory that shadowy lobbyists have been hard at work to bend the governor’s ear to catch the name of a local judge whose purported claim to excellence stops at the county borders.

Debra St. Germain

Thousand Oaks