Politics

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― California Chief Justice Ronald George has spent more than half his life in a black robe carefully 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 at 10 a.m. on May 15, when he heard the roar of a festive 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 2009 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 and writing one of the state's most historic and debated court decisions.

"I really felt that as chief justice I had to have the broad shoulders because I knew there would be substantial controversy about it," George 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. It's the first such holding in the country and the California Supreme Court's decisions, while not binding in other states, are the most followed by state courts outside California.

"There has to be a compelling governmental interest to justify treating people equally situated in a different manner," George said.

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 former Gov. Ronald Reagan appointing him to the Los Angeles County Municipal Court in 1972.

Since 1996, when he was appointed the state's top judge by then-Gov. 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 bans, 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 of nine murders in George's court.

Yet George did leave small 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 the ruling. His opponents, though vocal, ended up raising only $40,000 and the chief justice easily retained his seat with 75 percent of the vote.

California's seven Supreme Court justices must be "retained" by voters every 12 years.

Political conservatives are vowing 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 on the ballot measure.

The impeccably mannered George, who rarely displays displeasure and anger in public even when sitting through the weakest of legal arguments in his court room, becomes slightly annoyed and impatient with the subject of mounting a political campaign.

"I have no idea," he said 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."

Meanwhile, George shows no signs of slowing down, retiring or changing jobs, even though his name has been bandied about as a possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California wrote President Bush a letter suggesting George replace the retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

"There are no greener pastures," George said.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)