Chief Judge

This isn't Burger King. We don't do it your way here. --Judge Manuel L. Real's favorite saying. The courtroom confrontation took place more than 30 years ago, but the most controversial federal judge in Los Angeles remembers it today as an early lesson in judicial style. Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real, then a young prosecutor, had decided that his only chance of winning a conviction before an unsympathetic judge was to demand a jury trial. But U.S. District Judge Pierson M.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled against a midlevel manager who had sued former L.A. schools Supt. Ramon Cortines, alleging sexual harassment. Judge William F. Fahey ruled that real estate manager Scot Graham failed to file his claim within the six-month time limit allowed in such cases, said Sean Rossall, a spokesman for the L.A. Unified School District. The ruling is dated last Wednesday but was issued late Friday, according to the district. The judge did not rule on the merits of the allegations.

The chief judge of a federal appeals court has no special powers. He is truly a first among equals, establishing an agenda for the court only through the consent of his colleagues. The chief judge does chair the circuit's governing council, reviews complaints about judicial misconduct throughout the circuit and sits on the national Judicial Conference, which oversees federal court administration.

James R. Browning, the rural Montana native who rose to head the powerful U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and unified its diverse judges in campaigns to enlarge the bench and protect the sprawling circuit from division, has died. He was 93. Browning died Saturday at a Marin County hospital, the court said in a Monday night announcement. The cause was not given. Browning was the last 9th Circuit judge appointed by President Kennedy, whom he met on Inauguration Day 1961, when, as clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, he held the Bible as the chief justice swore the youngest chief executive into office.

Arthur L. Nims III, who has served on the U.S. Tax Court since 1979, has been elected chief judge for a two-year term, the court announced Monday.

Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge of New York state who went to prison for a campaign of threats and harassment against an ex-lover, was moved to a halfway house Monday. Wachtler, 64, is expected to stay at the Brooklyn Community Correctional Center for up to two months.

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Monday nominated state Court of Appeals Judge Judith S. Kaye to become New York's first woman chief judge. If confirmed, Kaye would lead the seven-member Court of Appeals, New York's top tribunal. The former chief judge, Sol Wachtler, resigned in November and has been charged with harassing an ex-girlfriend and threatened to kidnap her teen-age daughter. He pleaded not guilty last week, and his lawyer said he will mount an insanity defense.

U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter was appointed chief judge of the federal court's Central District this week, the first African American to lead the country's largest judicial district. Hatter, who was appointed to the federal bench in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, automatically became chief judge when his predecessor, Judge William Matthew Byrne, stepped down after four years in the position.

In an unprecedented tribute from Los Angeles federal trial judges, Chief Judge Emeritus James R. Browning of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was praised Thursday as a court administrator combining the skills of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and symphony conductor Arturo Toscanini. The reference to Gorbachev was made in a letter from former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger that was read during a special session of the U.S.

The former chief judge of New York state's highest court pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday to federal charges that he tried to extort money from his former lover. Sol Wachtler, 62, who resigned as chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals after his Nov. 7 arrest by FBI agents, appeared before U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson, who set a June 1 trial date. Wachtler's lawyer, Charles Stillman, has said that his client suffered from a "major psychiatric illness."

  The Judicial Council of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals opened a misconduct review of Montana's chief federal District Court judge for forwarding a racially charged email about President Obama from his courthouse computer. Judge Richard F. Cebull asked for the review as calls mounted Thursday for his immediate resignation. Legal ethics experts predicted the incident would result in a public admonishment. The judge, appointed byPresident George W. Bush12 years ago, maintained after the email became public that it was meant to be seen as anti-Obama and not racist, but added, "I can obviously understand why people would be offended.

When Suad Dabbagh and two other women graduated from Iraq's Judicial Institute in 1979, they became the first female judges in a nation run by Saddam Hussein. The novelty led to a deluge of news photo and interview requests. But progress was short-lived. By the mid-1980s, when Hussein's government once again stopped accepting women in its judicial study program, there were only six female judges. These days, after eight wrenching years of invasion, occupation and rebuilding, the outlook is different: There are 72 female judges working in Iraqi courts.

Norma Holloway Johnson, a trailblazing former chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., who gained national prominence when she oversaw the grand jury investigation into President Clinton's relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, has died. She was 79. Johnson died Sunday at her brother's home in Lake Charles, La., according to a court statement. The cause was not given. Johnson was the first black woman to be appointed to the federal bench in Washington and she is the only woman ever to serve as chief judge of the court.

In another swing at the judge who declared Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional, backers of the measure Monday asked that his decision be voided because he failed to disclose that he was gay and in a long-term relationship with another man. In a court filing, the sponsors of the ban on gay marriage, ProtectMarriage, asked the chief judge of the federal court in San Francisco to nullify last August's ruling by former U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn...

The people of California spoke clearly at the polls in 2008 when they passed an amendment to the state Constitution that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The public debate was held, the media wars were fought, both sides spent millions of dollars and the people voted for Proposition 8 by a margin of 52% to 48%. The people's will carried the day, as it is supposed to — until U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker came along. Last week, Walker nullified the votes of 7,001,084 people.

Excerpts from the federal court ruling striking down Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative that banned gay marriage in California. Judge Vaughn R. Walker's conclusion: "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.

Judge Patricia M. Wald said Monday that she will step aside as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to allow Judge Abner J. Mikva to take the post. Wald, 62, said she plans to step down before Mikva's 65th birthday, Jan. 21. Under the law, a federal judge who is 65 or older cannot become a chief judge.

A panel of federal judges admonished Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on Thursday for being "judicially imprudent" and "exhibiting poor judgment" by placing sexually explicit photos and videos on an Internet server that could be accessed by the public.

Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker was supposed to be a bit player in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, a federal constitutional challenge of the Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. Lawyers on both sides of the case viewed his federal courtroom in San Francisco as little more than a launching pad where they would argue fine points of constitutional law before the case moved to the appeals bench and eventually to the Supreme Court. But the iconoclastic U.S. District Court judge had something else in mind: a full-blown nonjury trial to test assumptions about whether gays were inferior parents, whether same-sex marriage hurt straight marriage and whether sexual orientation was changeable.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, has apologized for having maintained an e-mail "gag list" in which he distributed crude jokes and other humorous material, according to an opinion made public Tuesday. Kozinski was admonished earlier this year in a separate case for being "judicially imprudent" and "exhibiting poor judgment" by placing sexually explicit photos and videos on an Internet server that could be accessed by the public. The opinion released Tuesday by the Judicial Council of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said the investigation into the gag list was concluded after Kozinski said he had stopped e-mailing the jokes and "apologized for any embarrassment to the federal judiciary."