Judges

Re "Guesswork Is the Norm When Voting for Judges," May 28 The Times talks about all the uncertainty but fails to mention all the resources available to find out about judges. People say they never know anything about the judicial candidates, but there are resources available to help. The Los Angeles County Bar Assn. conducts investigations into each candidate and rates them. Those ratings are posted on www.lacba.org. In addition, the League of Women Voters allows the candidate a free web page at www.smartvoter.

It sounds like a common-sense idea: Establish bipartisan panels of lawyers and community leaders to screen potential federal judges. Yet a proposal to that effect by the American Bar Assn. is being publicly savaged by conservatives and given short shrift by liberal Democrats. Republican presidential candidate John McCain did not endorse the proposal -- he ignored it -- but conservatives pounced, accusing the ABA of a liberal bias. A Wall Street Journal editorial warned that using such panels to screen nominees "takes the partisan politics out of the public eye and into backrooms stocked with political insiders."

The problem with Chief Justice Rehnquist's push for a 30% pay raise for all federal judges is that it comes in the late 1980s when the nation is mired in debt; and large segments of American middle and working classes have seen stagnation and decline in their own real earnings, while the working poor are lucky to have a place to live. Unfortunately, judges are not alone in their sense of deprivation. The fact that Ronald Reagan appointed so many federal judges during his term in office makes it important that they share in the consequences of Reagan priorities--no money left for anyone's projects.

After the coffee. Before celebrating the New Year. The Skinny: It may be a new year for some (including me), but that doesn't mean a holiday for your Morning Fix. Monday's headlines include a look at the weekend box office, the big shake-up at Fox Filmed Entertainment, new judges on "American Idol" and a review of NBC's "Revolution. " Daily Dose: While Fox Filmed Entertainment goes through a big shift with longtime Co-chairman Tom Rothman leaving (see below)

The chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court Thursday rejected President Obama's call to halt the prosecution of terrorism suspects, ruling that a delay in the case of a Saudi accused in the Cole attack would "not serve the interests of justice." Army Col. James L. Pohl said the government's request to postpone until May the Feb. 9 arraignment of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri was "not reasonable."

CAIRO - President Mohamed Morsi suggested Monday that he would scale back broad powers he assumed last week but failed to appease Egypt's judiciary, which would still lack oversight of some institutions including the Islamist-led assembly drafting a new constitution. Morsi and senior judges met for nearly five hours to discuss differences resulting from the president's declaration that his office was free from judicial review. Morsi told judges that the decree was meant to be temporary, and mainly aimed at shielding the long-troubled constitutional assembly from any judicial attempt to disband it. Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said after the meeting that Morsi's decree was not designed to "infringe" on the judiciary, suggesting not all of the president's actions would be immune from court review.

On a recent morning, Mexican criminal-court judge Reynaldo Madruga Picazzo sat in the back of a downtown Los Angeles courtroom and watched as a police officer testified in the case of an accused gang member and a gun. Over the years, the 72-year-old had presided over many murder and kidnapping trials in his country. Always, he was judge and jury. No one ever took the stand in his courtroom. Picazzo pored over reams of paper trails, outlining accusations and defenses, and dispensed justice.

Two Sacramento judges Friday ordered changes in the wording of ballot measures that would move California to an open primary system, change car insurance rate structures and charge lobbyists to fund campaigns for secretary of state candidates. The changes resolved disputes over what is supposed to be neutral wording of the titles and summaries of the measures as well as the text of arguments to be published in the voter's manual for the June 8 election. Monday is the deadline for getting the final versions to the printer.