Civil Rights
Jul. 27, 2002
Presiding Judge Vows to Focus on Gay-Bias Rules
LOS ANGELES - The presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, James A. Bascue, said Thursday that he will address concerns that the court's existing rules don't go far enough to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Bascue's decision follows disclosure of a unanimous vote earlier this month by San Francisco judges forbidding bench officers from joining organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
The San Francisco policy came in response to the Bar Association of San Francisco, which was concerned about judges joining the Boy Scouts of America.
Angela Bradstreet, the San Francisco bar association president, said she was concerned about the perception of fairness and impartiality by the courts following a brief filed by the Boy Scouts to the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, in which the organization referred to homosexuals as "unclean" and "not morally straight."
Southern California leaders of the bench and bar on Thursday reacted with concern as well as a belief that judicial rules prohibit participation in discriminatory groups.
"This has not come up here because the feeling has been that Section 210.400 of the California Judicial Conduct Handbook, which references discriminatory clubs, is sufficient to deal with any issues relating to judges belonging to organizations that intentionally discriminate," Alan Parachini, public information officer for the Los Angeles Superior Court, explained.
Section 210.450 prohibits judges from holding membership in any organization that practices "invidious discrimination on the basis or race, sex or national origin" but does not mention discrimination based on sexual orientation specifically.
Orange County Superior Court spokeswoman Carole Levitzky, said judges are specifically prohibited from membership in organizations that practice sexual-orientation discrimination under Canon 2 of the California Code of Judicial Ethics as amended Dec. 13, 2000.
Canon 2-C states, "A judge shall not hold membership in any organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin or sexual orientation."
Levitzky said Orange County Superior Court is not considering further action on the issue because it believes Canon 2-C covers it.
"The judges of the Orange County Superior Court adhere to the canons of judicial ethics," Levitzky said.
However, Jeffrey Erdman, treasurer and past president of the gay and lesbian bar association of Los Angeles, said Canon 2-C includes a provision in the advisory committee commentary known as the "Boy Scouts exclusion" which states, "Membership in nonprofit youth organizations is not barred to accommodate individual rights to intimate association and free expression."
Erdman of the Los Angeles law firm Bennett & Erdman said that Bradstreet acted after it became clear during the Dale case just how entrenched the Boy Scouts were in their hostility toward homosexuals. Gay leaders questioned whether that exclusion could be justified any longer.
Despite the belief that judicial regulations prohibit participation in discriminatory groups, Bascue - a volunteer for Boy Scout Troop 2 in Santa Monica - said he has asked the L.A. Access and Fairness Committee to see whether more should be done. That committee is headed by Judge Fumiko Wasserman.
The troop with which Bascue is involved disavowed the national Boy Scouts of American organization's policy of forbidding homosexual men from serving as troop leaders more than two years ago, explained Parachini.
"Troop 2 has consistently disavowed and [Bascue] does disavow personally any discrimination of this kind," Parachini said.
He added that Bascue had vowed to "move as fast as possible" to address the issue.
Late Thursday morning, Richard Walch, executive director of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, forwarded an e-mail about the San Francisco judges' vote to John Clarke, executive officer of the Los Angeles Superior Court, with a note saying, "We've been asked to urge our local court (that's you) to adopt a policy similar ... "
The Los Angeles County Bar Association has considered whether to urge local judges to adopt the same policy since April. That's when Angela Bradstreet, president of Bar Association of San Francisco, presented the L.A. group's executive committee with the San Francisco group's proposal.
Though Bradstreet thought the Los Angeles group reacted rather negatively to her proposal, Walch said, "Obviously, we're generally supportive of the issue, but we have not yet decided how best to approach it."
Monty A. McIntyre, president of the San Diego County Bar Association, said he was unaware of any movement asking San Diego County judges to take a stronger position regarding anti-gay discrimination than exists.
"To my knowledge, San Diego doesn't have any similar kind of proposals before it," McIntyre, a civil litigator and of counsel to Seltzer, Caplan, McMann &Vitek in San Diego, said.
Ed Kimble
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