California chief
justice Ronald George has spent more than half his life
cultivating an image of a cautious jurist and earning a
reputation as a politically skilled court
administrator.
But his unlikely
legacy as gay rights pioneer was sealed May 15, when he
heard the roar of a crowd gathered below his office as his
majority decision legalizing same-sex marriage was
announced.
Now, the
law-and-order supporter of capital punishment is enduring
from gay marriage foes the very complaints of
''judicial activism'' he has worked so hard to avoid
during his 17 years on the high court and 34 years as
a California judge.
He will likely
have to mount an aggressive and expensive campaign to
retain his seat in the 2010 election.
''Absolutely, Ron
George should be thrown out for voting for gay
marriage,'' said Mike Spence, president of the conservative
California Republican Assembly. ''He has a very
radical view of what's a family.''
George makes no
apologies for taking the lead on a politically dangerous
case.
''I really felt
that as chief justice I had to have the broad shoulders
because I knew there would be substantial controversy about
it,'' he said in a recent interview.
The landmark
decision overturned California's bans on same-sex marriage,
extending to sexual orientation the same civil rights
protections afforded to race, religion and gender.
Decisions by the California supreme court are often
followed by state courts elsewhere.
Opponents have
gathered signatures to put a measure on the November
ballot for a constitutional amendment that would again ban
gay marriage. George declined to discuss the court
decision in detail, citing the measure and the legal
challenges expected regardless of the election's
outcome.
Until he wrote
the 4-3 majority decision, George was more noted for
his administrative achievements and political prowess
than his court decisions.
Four governors
named him five times to higher judicial positions,
starting with Ronald Reagan, who appointed him to the Los
Angeles County municipal court in 1972.
Since 1996, when
he was appointed the state's top judge by former
governor Pete Wilson, George has worked tirelessly with
the legislature to modernize the state's sprawling
court system.
He shifted
funding of the system from individual counties to the state,
ensuring consistent budgets. He also combined the Byzantine
municipal and superior court systems into one unified
branch of government.
The marriage
opinion surprised the legal community, which widely expected
the court to uphold California's gay marriage ban, said
Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen.
''Most people
thought his legacy would be the modernization of the
courts,'' Uelmen said. ''I think the gay marriage decision
will now be his principal legacy.''
George began his
legal career as a state prosecutor after graduating from
Stanford University's law school in 1964. He appeared in
1972 before the U.S. Supreme Court in a futile bid to
defend California's death penalty law; capital
punishment was legalized five years later.
On the bench,
George was noted as a tough-on-crime jurist. As a trial
judge in Los Angeles, he refused to let prosecutors dismiss
murder charges against ''Hillside Strangler'' Angelo
Buono, who was ultimately convicted on nine counts of
murder.
Yet George left
hints of what some would call more liberal leanings.
In 1995, as an
associate justice, he wrote the high court's majority
opinion holding that private country clubs that conduct
business with the public must allow women to join.
In 1997, he wrote
the decision allowing girls under 18 to undergo
abortions without their parents' permission.
The next year,
George raised $700,000 to defeat a campaign to unseat him
because of that ruling. His opponents raised only $40,000,
and the chief justice easily retained his seat with
75% of the vote.
California's
seven Supreme Court justices must be retained by voters
every 12 years.
Political
conservatives vow to organize a campaign to oust him because
of the gay marriage decision, though they haven't
formally started raising money. Spence said his group
and others will formally organize after the November
election.
The impeccably
mannered George, who rarely displays displeasure in public
even when sitting through the weakest of legal arguments in
his courtroom, becomes slightly annoyed with the
subject of mounting a political campaign.
''I have no
idea,'' he says when asked when he will formally launch his
campaign. ''It isn't anything that I have given any thought
to. I will do what I should do when that time comes
about.'' (Paul Elias, AP)
