Desert Sun, Volume 43, Number 210, 8 April 1970 — Reaont «L Appoints New Mop [ARTICLE]

Reaont «L Appoints New Mop

SAN FRANCISCO (L’Pl) Gov. Ronald Reagan made his first appointment to the California Supreme Court Monday, but. if re-elected, will probably end his second term with a ‘‘Reagan-made’’ court. Reagan’s new appointee, if approved by the State Commission on Judicial Appointments on April 17. will join five justices elevated to the high bench by former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown and one named by then-Gov. Goodwin Knight. The court has been considered a “libera!”one and should continue in that category, although by a slimmer margin. The high court had what Justice Raymond L. Sullivan called a “five-judge majority’’ | until January of this year when. Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor retired. With the new appointee, Donald R. Wright of Pasadena, considered a conservative, the court should be left with the same “four-jud-re majority” with w’hich it has been operating the past two months. The four are Justice Sullivan, Justice Raymond E. Peters, Justice Mathew 0. Tobriner and Justice Stanley Mosk. Justice Marshall F. McComb and Justice Louis H. Burke have been the conservative, minority. Wright, if confirmed, would probably join these two. But Reagan’s next appoint-: ment, although only his second, could put the court into the ■ conservative spectrum That is, unless his next appointment is a replacement for Justice McComb. already the most conservative member of the high court. McComb. who was appointed by Gov. Knight, has already passed retirement age but continues to serve actively at age 75. If McComb continues active: and no unforeseen vacancies occur, Reagan’s next appointment will probably come in April, 1973, when Justice Peters, definitely a liberal on the black-white, liberal-conser-vative scale, could retire. “It’s because of what I call the 'Bribery Retirement Act,”’ Justice Peters said recently.! “If you retire before your 7()th birthday, you get 3-4ths of your regular salary as pension and your widow gets half that, or 3Hths. If you do not retire and go, on working, then your pension is 1-2 your salary and your widow gets only 1-4. “So I contemnlate retiring before my 70th birthday, which will be April 17, 1973. That, however, is subject to change.” The same reason might motivate the retirements of Justices Tobriner and Burke during the next four years plus. 1 Justice Sullivan, along with the | new appointee, will not have to, make that retirement decision until 1977 and Justice Mosk will not be 70 until 1982. Justice Tobriner will reach i the magical retirement age on' April 2, 1974, and Justice 1 Burke's 70th birthday could create political “fun and games” in 1973 if Reagan serves a second term and a Democrat is elected in November of 1974Justice Burke will be 70 years old on Jan. 4, 1975. If Reasan is re-elected, his second term will run out on Jan. fi, 1975. That leaves two days in which to fill the vacancy—enough time for an appointment, but not enoueh to get confirmation from the i Commission on Judicial Ap- 1 pointments. Which could mean that political 1975 gets off to a' rousing start.