One Down, 87 to Go

Gov. Gray Davis acted with uncharacteristic dispatch this week in announcing his appointment of Judge Carlos Moreno to the California Supreme Court. Moreno, a federal trial judge in Los Angeles, will fill the seat left vacant by the June death of Justice Stanley Mosk. The governor has made a good choice. Now Davis needs to show that same dispatch in filling the state’s 87 other judicial vacancies.

By all accounts, Moreno, 52, will be a strong addition to the state high court. He is considered a cautious jurist, a centrist positioned somewhat to the right of Mosk, who was for years the court’s lone liberal.

Moreno draws high marks for his intelligence and good humor from his colleagues on the U.S. District Court, where he has sat since 1998, and from lawyers and litigants on all sides. Prior to joining the federal bench, Moreno sat on the Los Angeles Municipal and Superior courts. If confirmed as expected by the state Commission on Judicial Appointments, Moreno will be the only Latino on the Supreme Court and the third in the court’s history.

Good work, governor. Now, what about the 18 vacant seats in the courts of appeal and the 69 vacancies statewide on the superior courts? In Los Angeles County alone, 22 judgeships are open, several of them vacant for more than six months and one for more than a year. With judicial retirements outpacing appointments, more vacancies here and around the state are likely. Trial and appellate judges are the workhorses of the state courts. When these courts are chronically understaffed and overburdened, the system bogs down.

Since he took office in early 1999, Davis has acted far too slowly in filling key posts within his administration and has dithered over naming judges. Moreno’s appointment, announced a little more than three months after Mosk’s death, demonstrates that the governor can move more quickly and still choose wisely.