There are four vacancies on the court.

The Senate on May 16 voted 93-0 to confirm Torrance attorney Milan D. Smith, a former member of the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission nominated by President Bush to the court on Feb. 14. Smith, the brother of Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., succeeds Judge A. Wallace Tashima, who took senior status June 30, 2004.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on May 4 voted 10-8 on a party-line vote to send the nomination of N. Randy Smith, a trial judge from Pocatello, Idaho and former chairman of his state's Republican Party, to the full Senate. President Bush nominated Smith on Dec. 16 to fill the vacancy created when Judge Stephen S. Trott took senior status Dec. 31, 2004.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Judiciary Committee, rallied Democratic opposition to the nomination, saying that since both Trott-who moved to Idaho after his appointment-and his predecessor were from California, Trott's successor should come from this state as well.

Smith was unanimously rated "well qualified" by the American Bar Association's judicial evaluating panel.
On May 25, the Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Sandra S. Ikuta, California Resources Agency deputy director and general counsel, to succeed Judge James Browning, who took senior status Sept. 1, 2000.

Ikuta, who was nominated Feb. 8, was unanimously rated well qualified by the ABA.

Judge Thomas G. Nelson took senior status Nov. 14, 2003. The nomination of William G. Myers III to succeed Nelson was sent to the floor by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004 on a party-line vote of 10-8.

President Bush resubmitted Myers' nomination on Feb. 14 of last year.

Republican senators tried and failed in July of last year to force a floor vote on the nomination of Myers. The vote on the motion to invoke cloture was 53-44, short of the three-fifths required, with both California senators voting against. No agreement concerning Myers was reached when a bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise to avert filibusters on several other nominees.

Myers, who was first nominated on May 15, 2003, is a former solicitor of the Department of the Interior and now practices law in Boise, Idaho. In recent comments to reporters, he said he still considers himself a viable nominee for the court.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Valerie L. Baker was nominated May 4 to succeed Judge Consuelo Marshall, who took senior status on Oct. 24 of last year.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Philip Gutierrez was nominated April 24 to replace Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., who took senior status on April 22, 2005.

Costa Mesa attorney Andrew Guilford, a former president of the State Bar, was nominated Jan. 25 to succeed Judge Dickran M. Tevrizian, who took senior status on Aug. 5 of last year. The ABA unanimously rated Guilford well qualified.

There is a vacancy as a result of Judge Nora Manella's appointment to the Court of Appeal for this district.
Judge Gary Taylor took senior status Dec. 8, 2004 and retired to become a private judge with JAMS on June 30 of last year.

Judge Ronald S.W. Lew will take senior status September 19.

There are no vacancies.

Justice Laurence T. Stevens of Div. Five retired Feb. 28.

The governor made four appointments to the court on April 20. Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board Administrative Law Judge Mary Lou Villar, civil litigators Steven D. Blades and Juan Carlos Dominguez, and former federal prosecutor Ray G. Jurado succeeded Judge Jean Matusinka, who died, and Judges David I. Doi, Rodney Nelson, and Richard Denner, who retired.

Dominguez began hearing drug court and Proposition 36 cases at the Pomona North courthouse May 19. Blades began hearing misdemeanors in West Covina May 24.

Jurado has taken up his assignment, presiding over a misdemeanor trial court in Downey. Villar is hearing infraction trials at the Metropolitan Courthouse.

There are vacancies on the court resulting from the retirements of Judge Michael Knight Feb. 21, Judge T.K. Herman April 21, Judge Paula A. Mabrey April 28, Judge Charles Rubin April 30, and Judge John Sandoz May 15.

Three judges are planning to retire next month, Paul G. Flynn and Jacob Adajian on June 5 and Stephen Petersen June 26. Petersen's last day on the bench was May 19.

Among those whose names have gone to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are criminal defense specialist Steven Cron of Santa Monica; Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Edward J. Perez; Deputy District Attorneys David Stuart, David Gelfound and Laura Louise Laesecke; Commissioners Mitchell Beckloff, Victor Greenberg, Amy Pellman, Maren Nelson, Dennis Mulcahy, Harvey Silberman, and Loren DiFrank; Referee Steven Berman; U.S. District Court attorney Amy L. Lew; Irvine attorney Raymond Earl Brown; Los Angeles attorney Adrienne Krikorian; and Century City attorney Howard S. Fredman.

Los Angeles attorney Paul Ted Suzuki, corporate counsel Michele Flurer, and Deputy District Attorney Lia R. Martin were elected in voting by the court's judges at the end of last month to succeed Commissioners H. Ronald Hauptmann, who retired March 21; Paul Enright, who retired March 30; and Richard Hughes, who retired March 31.

Martin began hearing traffic cases at the Pomona North courthouse May 25. Suzuki will begin doing infraction arraignments at the Metropolitan Courthouse tomorrow.

Commissioner Beverly Mosley is retiring June 30. Commissioners Martin L. Goestch and James Copelan are on long-term medical leave.

The following legislation of interest to the legal community was acted on in May:

•AB 1995, by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-Los Angeles, which would expand trial court employees' access to their personnel files. The bill passed the Assembly May 15 by a vote of 59-19 and was sent to the Senate, where it was referred to the Judiciary Committee.

•AB 2814, by Koretz, which would add elder abuse to the list of crimes as to which a prosecutor's schedule conflict is presumed to be good cause for a continuance. The bill passed the Assembly May 4 by a vote of 72-2 and was sent to the Senate, where it was assigned to the Committee on Public Safety.

•AB 2858, by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, which would amend notice procedures applicable to mental competency proceedings for criminal defendants. The bill was scheduled to be voted on as a consent matter by the Assembly yesterday.

•AB 2927, by Leno, D-San Francisco, which, as amended, would require any state agency that publishes an Internet Web site to include on the site certain information, including the terms of litigation settlements, and would authorize any person to bring an action to enforce the duty of a state agency to post this information and would provide for penalties including monetary awards to be paid by agency officers or employees in specified circumstances. The bill passed the Assembly Committee on Appropriations by a vote of 13-5 May 25 and was scheduled for second reading on the Assembly floor yesterday.

•SB 1015 , by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, which, as amended, would require that certain financial information in divorce cases be "redacted." The provisions would have replaced provisions of a two-year-old law held unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds by Div. Seven of this district's Court of Appeal in its Jan. 20 ruling in Burkle v. Burkle. The bill was placed on the Assembly inactive file, apparently killing it for this year.

•SB 1521, by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, which, as amended, would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, upon reasonable notice, to permit representatives of the news media to interview prisoners in person and would forbid retaliation against an inmate for participating in a visit by, or communicating with, a representative of the news media. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 25-11 and was sent to the Assembly, where it was referred to the Committee on Public Safety.