The agency that disciplines unethical judges in California does not have to release thousands of confidential judicial complaints and investigations sought by the state auditor, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled.
Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos said in her ruling this week that the state Constitution gives the San Francisco-based Commission on Judicial Performance the power to shield certain records, effectively trumping the auditor’s legislative authority to review government agencies.
Regardless of the “merit or popularity” of the auditor’s arguments to view such records, Bolanos wrote, voters made clear in a 1994 proposition that amended the state constitution that only proceedings involving formal charges against judges would be public. [Read Full Article]