Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Page 3
Confirmation Hearings Set for Court of Appeal Nominees
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Confirmation hearings for the two judges nominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to this district’s Court of Appeal and for the governor’s nominee for the court’s presiding justice for Div. One are scheduled for June 4.
The three-member Commission on Judicial Appointments will hear testimony on the nominations in the Supreme Court courtroom at the Ronald Reagan State Building, 300 S. Spring St..
The hearing for Justice Robert A. Mallano will begin at 2:00. Hearings for Judges Frank Y. Jackson and Patricia A. Bigelow will immediately follow.
The members of the commission who will consider the appointments are Chief Justice Ronald M. George, Chairperson; Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr.; and Presiding Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, senior presiding justice of the Second Appellate District.
Mallano, 69, was nominated as presiding justice of Div. 1. He has served as acting presiding justice for Div. One since Vaino Spencer’s retirement last September.
He was named to the Court of Appeal by then-Gov. Gray Davis in August 2000 after serving two years on assignment in Div. Two. Mallano served on the South Bay Municipal Court from 1978 until 1980 when he was elevated to the Los Angeles Superior Court by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
The jurist, a Democrat, was a history major at Yale University and received his law degree from Boalt Hall.
Jackson, 59, was nominated to Div. Seven, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Earl Johnson. Jackson has been serving as a judge pro tem in Div. One.
Then-Gov. George Deukmejian appointed him to the Antelope Municipal Court in 1990, and then-Gov. Pete Wilson appointed him to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1993.
He attended the University of Nevada, Reno on a basketball scholarship, and the McGeorge School of Law. He is a Republican.
Bigelow, 47, was nominated to Div. Eight, filling a vacancy created by the death of Justice Paul Boland.
She was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1995 by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, who also appointed her to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1998.
The former deputy district attorney attended California State University, Fullerton, and the Pepperdine University School of Law. She is the daughter of the late Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M. Ross Bigelow and a Republican.
All communications to the commission by persons who wish to comment on the appointment, and requests to speak at the hearing—which under commission rules must include a summary of the facts on which the testimony will be based—must be submitted by 5 p.m. on May 28, the AOC said.
Comments should be addressed to: Commission on Judicial Appointments, c/o Chief Justice of California, Supreme Court of California, 350 McAllister Street, San Francisco, California 94102, Attention: Secretary to the Commission.
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