Battle Brews in Calif. as AG Mulls: Can Judges Who OK'd Own Lavish Perks Be Disciplined?
After only part of a series of planned financial reform laws was enacted by lawmakers in California, state-court judges wound up with the power to oversee their own benefits.
And some reportedly may have taken advantage of that situation. In San Luis Obispo County, for instance, judges granted themselves perks such as a car allowance, even though they don’t drive on the job, and cash that’s supposed to be spent on education, although receipts aren’t required, reports the Cal Coast News. They are paid, on average, nearly $179,000 a year in salary.
Meanwhile, the overall state court budget is $350 million in the red, as it and other state agencies struggle to deal with a revenue shortfall and, in theory, such benefits are required by the state constitution to to be approved by the state legislature, the newspaper says.
Now the state attorney general has been asked to give an opinion about the power of the Commission on Judicial Performance to discipline the judges in San Luis Obispo, if they are potentially found to have violated state statutes and regulations in determining their own benefits without legislative approval.
Complicating the situation is a state law that apparently says the commission can’t discipline judges for padding their benefits, the article notes.
The commission argues that state lawmakers don’t have the power to prevent it from exercising the disciplinary authority over judges granted by the state constitution.
But the California’s Judges Association sees the situation differently, the Cal Coast News reports.
“The Legislature can make laws to protect one from liability, whether civil, criminal or administrative, for past conduct,” the group says in a letter to AG Kamala Harris. “Whether viewed as a retroactive immunity from liability, a retroactive authorization of conduct, or a retroactive reduction of penalties to zero, this is within the power of the Legislature.”
Hat tip: Legal Newsline.
