Go back to News pageSAN FRANCISCO -- California's system of punishing errant judges will undergo its most dramatic change in three decades following voters' resounding approval of a measure to overhaul the judicial discipline process.
Proposition 190 passed Tuesday by a landslide, with 64 percent of the vote, ending the judges' domination over their own disciplinary system and giving the public greater oversight.
Sponsored by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, D-San Francisco, the constitutional amendment transforms an obscure but powerful disciplinary panel that has come under broad attack this year. Critics have charged that the Commission on Judicial Performance needlessly conducts most of its business in secret and metes out only mild punishment to unethical judges, appearing more intent on protecting them than keeping them in line.
Judges who have acted unethically or committed some kind of misconduct -- making sexist remarks in court, for example, or receiving gifts from lawyers or clients -- have often received only private reprimands from the commission.
Prop. 190 replaces the majority of judges on the commission with a citizen-majority and opens now-secret disciplinary hearings to the public.
The measure was a joint effort by Brown and Sen. Alfred Alquist, D-San Jose, who sponsored a similar bill in the Senate. When the measures were introduced earlier this year, veteran legislators gave them a slim chance of passing in time to become eligible for Tuesday's ballot.
But the two proposals moved swiftly through both houses with strong bi-partisan support. Gov. Wilson signed the proposed constitutional amendment in August.
Prop. 190 changes the size and the balance of power on the commission. Currently there are five judges and nine members in all. But under terms of the new amendment, membership will expand to 11: six lay members -- two appointed by the Assembly speaker, two by the Senate Rules Committee and two by the governor; three judges chosen by the California Supreme Court; and two attorneys appointed by the governor.
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