Word: courtly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...began almost a year ago as an attempt to "clear the air" and "restore public confidence." When it ended last week, it was apparent that an unprecedented and excruciating investigation of the California Supreme Court had not succeeded in achieving either goal. The final report by California's commission on judicial performance briefly stated that "no formal charges will be filed against any supreme court justice." It was a less than conclusive judgment and thus left impaired the reputation of a court long considered among the most enlightened in the nation...
...commission had set out last January to examine two questions: 1) Had the supreme court, as charged in the press, delayed the release of four politically sensitive decisions until after Election Day, 1978, in order to boost Chief Justice Rose Bird's chances for confirmation by the voters? and 2) Had any of the justices or members of their staffs leaked word of such a ploy to the Los Angeles Times, which printed the story on Election...
...year-old activist with no prior judicial experience, she had been opposed by law-and-order conservatives and some of the legal establishment ever since her surprise appointment in 1977 by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. By last November, under the pressure of allegations of political maneuvering by the court, she decided that something had to be done to restore confidence in the state's highest tribunal...
...commission entrusted with the investigation is composed of five judges appointed by the supreme court, two lawyers named by the governors of the state bar, and two lay people chosen by the Governor. In existence since 1961 to hear complaints and bring charges against wayward judges, it now found itself faced with the ultimate test, a probe of the supreme court. Under instructions from California's judicial council, the commission was required to conduct a public hearing, and it launched one last June, under the glare of television lights, after a five-month closed inquiry during which it examined...
...note-taking aides sit in on their conversations with conservative Justice William Clark because they did not trust him. The antagonism between Bird and Clark reached the point where the chief justice refused to speak to either him or his clerks. More important, the testimony indicated that the court's procedures were slow, cumbersome, even archaic. That view was echoed by Robert Thompson, a former California appeals court justice, who told TIME Correspondent Edward J. Boyer that the court was taking on too many cases for review...