Judge

Michael Moore's articles on the California Supreme Court (Editorial Pages, July 29-30-31) are of a piece with his scholarly writings with which I am familiar. He consistently uses many words to plod to politically conservative conclusions, which he argues are objective, neutral, and not based upon his political preferences. His apparent sincerity indicates that he has actually deceived himself, though I doubt that he can fool his barber or many first-year law students. In this instance, his neutral test for deciding whether to vote for or against Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird is to ask whether she "has stepped outside the proper role of a judge."

Robert S. Thompson, a former associate justice of the California Court of Appeal who taught law at USC for 11 years, died in San Diego on Friday after a short illness, his family said. He was 91. Thompson's judicial career began on the Los Angeles Municipal Court, where he served from 1965 to 1966. He moved to the Los Angeles Superior Court for two years, until then-Gov. Ronald Reagan elevated him to the state Court of Appeal in 1968. During his tenure on the appellate court he ruled on a number of noteworthy cases, including a 1974 decision that bolstered the landmark legal battle of Bill Farr, a Los Angeles journalist who, invoking California's shield law, spent 46 days in jail after refusing to reveal his sources to the judge in the Charles Manson murder trial.

Barefoot Sanders, 83, a U.S. district judge who presided over more than two decades of litigation to desegregate Dallas schools, died Sunday of natural causes at his home, said Karen Mitchell, clerk for the Northern District of Texas. Sanders, who served as a deputy attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson, was the district's senior judge. He was appointed by President Carter in 1979. He took over the school desegregation case in 1981, presiding over it until its closure in 2003.

The Pakistani government has lost control of rogue military and intelligence officers who aid Al Qaeda and its allies and play a double game with the West, a renowned French judge asserts in an upcoming book. For three decades, Jean-Louis Bruguiere was an investigative magistrate, a powerful role that combines the duties of prosecutor and judge and allowed him to cultivate high-level contacts from Algiers to Moscow. He stepped down from that post in 2007, and now serves as the European Union's envoy to Washington on issues related to the financing of terrorism.

Who writes the laws by which the International Criminal Court will judge people ("Global Court Near Despite U.S. Rebuff," April 11)? Will it operate on an ex post facto basis, which is expressly forbidden by the U.S. Constitution? Is there any process by which a mischievous judge can be removed? How long are the terms of office? Is there a confirmation process for appointees? It seems to me that this court is a danger rather than a safeguard. Thomas F. Brands Los Angeles The Bush administration is right to oppose an international criminal tribunal.

A federal judge on Friday overturned the conviction of a San Fernando Valley man serving a life prison sentence for the 1983 murder of his mother, ruling that he must either be retried or set free. U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips concluded that Bruce Lisker, 44, was convicted on "false evidence" and that his attorney -- now a court commissioner -- failed to adequately represent him. The judge's findings mirrored those of a seven-month Times investigation published in 2005, which raised questions about key elements of the prosecution's case against Lisker and exposed the LAPD's investigation into the slaying of his 66-year-old mother as sloppy and incomplete.

A Los Angeles County judge Thursday approved an eight-year prison sentence for a man who confessed to sexually assaulting three mentally handicapped women at an El Monte daycare center where he worked. Superior Court Judge Mike Camacho was in the middle of pronouncing the sentence ? the product of a controversial plea bargain ? when the prosecutor reminded him that one victim's mother wished to speak. The mother said she was disappointed that although she went to authorities the same day her daughter reported the assault to her, the defendant, Juan Fernando Flores, was not arrested for almost a year ?

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday against Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and other Los Angeles County officials, ordering them not to discipline or discriminate against prosecutors for belonging to the union that represents hundreds of local deputy district attorneys. The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II, came in a lawsuit filed by the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys alleging that Cooley and others demoted, transferred and gave mediocre performance reviews to prosecutors as part of an anti-union campaign.

A federal judge has awarded more than $4.2 million to the estate of Wayne Hage, one of the leaders of the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion. The judge ruled that the U.S. Forest Service had committed a constitutional "taking" of Hage's water rights during a decades-long dispute over livestock grazing on federal land. The judge also ordered the government to pay back interest, which the late rancher's lawyer estimated at another $4.4 million.

A federal judge has turned aside a challenge from New York restaurants and upheld the city's rules requiring calories to be posted on some menus. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell ruled that the law is a reasonable approach to the city's goal of reducing obesity. The new law takes effect Monday and applies to restaurants with more than 15 outlets across the country.