J.A.I.L. News
Journal
Judicial
Accountability
Initiative
Law
______________________________________________________
Los
Angeles,
CA
September 14,
2009
A Public Service Announcement to America
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The Battle Lines are Drawn: J.A.I.L. versus The Foreign Power
A Power Foreign to Our Constitution
Today is September 14. In just two days all of the courts in the State of California will be closing. Our California judicial system is in total shambles, while the judges are prospering. They can now sit along their pool side with lemonade while they collect not only their full salary, but an additional $46,000.
During the last two decades of the California courts an appellate court has found that the Los Angeles County judges have been taking $46,000 in annual County bribes. This payoff of the judges by the County of Los Angeles has influenced their decisions whenever the County of Los Angeles has been a party to an action. In fact, Attorney Fredrick Bennett, who was assigned to all cases involving judges, has boasted that in all his years he has never lost a case wherein a judge was called into account. I, Ron Branson, testify that when I appeared in federal court as a plaintiff against a Los Angeles judge, Mr. Bennett would sport with the judge in my presence prior to the case proceeding. His conversation, my not remembering the names, went as follows; "How is your wife Helen? How is your son, Johnnie and your daughter Mary?" This was his manner of letting me know that he has an intimate relationship with the federal judge as though having picnicked with the family last Saturday. In effect, he was laughing at me over the very idea that I would seek to hold a Los Angeles judge accountable.
Economically, the chickens are coming home to roost, and now the courts are facing financial turmoil and having to close. For those of you not familiar with the judicial system here in California, the author of the below article is California Chief Justice Ronald George. I was called by the Los Angeles Times, and on the other end was Reporter Jessica Garrison. She asked me, "Do you know who Ronald George is?" I said yes, he is the Chief Justice of California. She said, "That's correct. I just got off the phone with Ronald George and he says he knows you." I said to her, I'm very impressed, but he has nothing good to say about me. She said, "That is correct." I then told her that Ronald George has said in the media that I am out to destroy this "wonderful judicial system" we have here in California.
She asked me if I would meet with her for an interview. I told her yes, and I met her at Sitton's Restaurant. She was quite a serious person, and during that interview I decided to enter a little humor. I said to her, "I'm going to call Ronald George and arrange for lunch with him." She asked, "Why would you do that?" I to her "You said that Ronald George knows me, so I thought we should get together and discuss getting JAIL4Judges passed here in California." She did not crack a smile.
Anyway, below you will see Ronald George mourning the closures of his courts throughout California. He has entitled it, "Justice Takes a Day Off." If it is any consolation to him, I am here announcing J.A.I.L.'s goal to post the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law on our California Secretary of State's website, and the endeavor to place Judicial Accountability on the California ballot in California for November, 2010. Ronald George's help in this endeavor will be appreciated. We know this news will spread across this nation very fast.
Enjoy as you read the words of my dear ole' friend, Chief Justice Ronald George. He was kind enough to write about me in his State of the Judiciary message for 2007, so if you care to write him, tell him Ron Branson sent ya.
Ron Branson
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Los Angeles Times
In California, justice takes a day off
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-george14-2009sep14,0,6922678.story
The state's chief justice says shutting down the courts one day a month will be a burden -- and a test of our ability to deal with fiscal crisis.
·Related
By Ronald M. George
September 14, 2009
Starting Sept. 16, the largest
court system in the nation will be closing the doors of courthouses across the
state one day each month. On Wednesday, an estimated 3 million cases will be
delayed, 150 jury trials interrupted and 250 child custody cases unheard. Jails
will be more crowded as arraignment and release dates are postponed; attorneys
and their clients will be inconvenienced, as will jurors; and the public will
experience longer lines, more delays and more crowded courtrooms.
Wednesday is the first of 10 monthly statewide closure days (uniformly
the third Wednesday of each month) authorized by the Judicial Council, the
constitutionally created body that administers California's court system. As in
many other states, the council was created in the 1920s, an outgrowth of the
Progressive movement, which sought to make government more efficient, more
effective and more accountable. The mission of the council today remains largely
unchanged: to ensure the consistent, impartial and accessible administration of
justice in the state.
Why then is the council, a body created to protect
and increase access to justice in California, allowing our courts to close for
even one day a month?
California's economic crisis has affected
government at all levels and in nearly every area of service, as well as every
aspect of private life and business. For seven months, Californians have endured
the effects of mandatory furloughs for many state workers, first two days a
month and now three. But courts are not state agencies. And courthouses -- known
earlier in our history as "temples of justice" -- are not just office buildings;
they are the repository of our fundamental commitment to justice for all. The
unintended yet inevitable symbolism of "Closed" signs on institutions that
embody our democratic ideals is yet another tragic indicator of the severity of
California's economic crisis.
The Judicial Council, with express
authorization from the Legislature and the governor, made the difficult decision
to close courts one day a month to avoid even more damaging consequences of
reductions in the judicial branch's budget. This course of action was taken with
great reluctance at an emergency public meeting in July, after substantial input
from local courts and after months of examining alternatives. In the end, court
closures proved to be the only rational option available to address budget
realities while protecting skilled employees from massive layoffs, maintaining a
consistent level of court services for litigants and their lawyers, and
preserving equal access to justice. Indeed, the Superior Court of Los Angeles
County had already concluded that closures were inevitable and in July became
the first court in the state to implement monthly closures.
At the
emergency meeting, I pledged to reduce my own salary to share in the sacrifice
we are asking of the majority of the 21,000 men and women who work in the
California judicial branch. I also encouraged my judicial colleagues across the
state -- more than 1,600 trial judges and an additional 111 appellate justices
-- to join me in voluntarily waiving their salaries for one day a month or
donating a portion of their salaries to support court operations. I am gratified
to report that a very high percentage of the judges in the state have pledged to
either participate in the waiver or to make private donations to their
respective courts. As The Times recently reported, that figure is exceptionally
high in Los Angeles, where 423 of the 430 judges are participating in voluntary
pay reductions.
At this critical juncture in our state's history, even
as the judicial branch is forced to close courts one day a month, the state
court system itself remains stronger and better able to deliver on the promise
of equal justice under law because of the many changes we have made in the last
several years. In the years I have served as California's chief justice and
chairman of the Judicial Council, the judicial branch has undergone the most
significant structural reforms in our state's history.
The court reforms
of recent years rival those of the Progressive era and will exceed them in the
benefits they provide to the public. Legislation in 1997 that allowed for
statewide funding of the trial courts addressed historic inequities in the
quality of justice dispensed among California's 58 counties. In 1998, California
voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution to permit the unification
of the 220 Superior and Municipal courts into 58 trial courts -- one in each
county. Unification has allowed greater flexibility in the use of judicial and
staff resources, eliminated duplicative services and led to the creation of
additional services for the public, such as collaborative justice courts,
domestic violence courts, drug courts and complex litigation courts. Finally,
the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002 called for the transfer of responsibility
for court facilities from the counties to the state. This allowed the judicial
branch for the first time to assume responsibility for the buildings in which
judges and court staff work and the public is served, and to do so economically
and effectively. To date, 503 (more than 90%) of our court structures have been
transferred to the state's ownership under judicial branch management.
These historic changes and the growing responsibilities of the council
have been a means to an end. They have strengthened the judiciary as a coequal
and independent branch of government and secured the system of checks and
balances essential to a robust democracy. They have addressed budget inequities
among trial courts around the state. They have improved our branch's
accountability to our sister branches of government for the financial
appropriations provided to the courts. And ultimately they have enhanced equal
access to justice and provided a greater degree of accountability.
One
irony of the current crisis is that it restricts court services at a time when
the need for them is increasing. The economic downturn has produced a sharp
spike in civil filings, especially in the areas of contract and unlawful
detainer, which includes evictions. This increase has more than offset a small
decline in criminal filings. What this means to judges and court staff is that
we are asking them to do more with less. What this means for all Californians is
that we must provide adequate resources for courts to resolve disputes in an
orderly manner, or suffer the consequences of being unable to meet the public's
needs.
When I served as a trial judge in Los Angeles during the 1970s and
'80s, California was still in its age of abundance. Today we are in a far more
challenging time. The fiscal crisis in our state will have profound effects on
many aspects of public service, including the courts, in the next fiscal year
and for several years to come. I am committed to protecting the public from the
full impact of further reductions in court services, and from any decline in the
high quality of justice that so many have worked so long to achieve.
My
hope is that as we are tested by this crisis, all of us -- state government
officers, justices and judges, court employees and Californians everywhere --
will join together in meeting these challenges. How we proceed will tell us a
great deal about the prospects for our state in the years ahead.
Ronald
M. George is chief justice of California and chairman of the state Judicial
Council.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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