Vance Raye, a 3rd District Court of Appeal justice, is a good friend of Justice Janice Rogers Brown.  I have to wonder if that is really what is behind Att. Gen. Bill Lockyer’s opposition to Raye’s elevation to the California Supreme Court.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that Lockyer has expressed "concern" about one of Raye’s legal decisions.  Lockyer expressed this "concern" at a meeting of the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club where Lockyer asked fellow Democrats to submit other names of possible candidates.   (Somebody needs to remind Lockyer that he is not the governor and cannot nominate justices.)

Raye served as Gov. George Deukmejian’s legal affairs secretary and was appointed to the bench by Deukmejian. He is a well-respected and intelligent judge and probably the one of the nicest people you would ever meet.

In the case Lockyer is questioning, the court of appeal found that there was not enough evidence in a racial discrimination case involving Home Depot.

Lockyer has no business attacking Raye on the basis of one unpublished case, a case for which Raye did not even write the decision.  He was one of three judges finding on behalf of Home Depot.  Further, the decision was not published, which means it is not a legally significant decision and lawyers are prohibited from citing it in court.  Additionally, Lockyer and the state of California were not party to the lawsuit, so Lockyer would not even be cognizant of the case details.

As Raye points out to the Times, he came to a different conclusion on a similar case involving Del Webb, but Lockyer apparently is choosing to ignore that case.

Lockyer sits on the judicial confirmation panel which will approves the governor’s Supreme Court pick. Gov. Schwarzenegger has submitted Raye’s name, along with Carol Corrigan, a state appellate judge in San Francisco, for review by a State Bar review panel.

Lockyer’s opposition to Raye strikes me as completely political.  The Democrats lost a bruising battle over Rogers Brown’s elevation to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.  If nominated and confirmed, Raye would fill Rogers Brown’s spot on the California Supreme Court, putting him in position for possible elevation to a federal post at some later date.

Raye would be a great state Supreme Court justice.  Schwarzenegger should ignore Lockyer’s political posturing and nominate Raye for the state’s top court. 

This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.