Bird on Voters and the Court

I wonder if Gov. George Deukmejian and the California Republican hierarchy have thought through the potential consequences of their efforts to eliminate all Democratic justices from the California Supreme Court. Have they forgotten that there are more Democrats than Republicans in California, and that the California Senate and Assembly are controlled by Democrats?

If their current efforts should be successful, I would guess that the Democratic hierarchy would retaliate in numerous ways. First, those in the Senate likely would refuse to confirm any appointments made by a Republican governor.

Second, I would expect the Democrats to mount future campaigns to remove all Republican Supreme Court justices. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see many Democrats voting to oust Republican Justices Malcolm M. Lucas and Edward A. Panelli this November.

Sometimes it appears that the Republican types never learn anything. They are the same types who rejected out of hand a serious Democratic offer in the late 1950s to turn over redistricting to an independent nonpartisan commission. The Republicans then controlled the Legislature, by a bare majority, and hoped to gerrymander California in 1961, as they had in 1951.

Unfortunately, for them, the Democrats won control of the Legislature in 1960, and did their own gerrymandering for the next three decades, and perhaps longer. Some people never learn.

MILO E. SHADLE

Vista