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Judges and Judiciary

Mar. 31, 2011

Proposed Bill Major Setback for the State’s Courts

Enactment of AB1208 would reverse the benefits of centralization that our court system has achieved. By Erwin Chemerinsky of UCI School of Law.

Erwin Chemerinsky

Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law

Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).


A bill now pending in the California Legislature, AB1208, threatens to undo many of the most important improvements in the California court system over the last two decades. As chief justice, Ronald M. George's greatest accomplishments were in greatly enhancing judicial administration in California state courts. By shifting much more responsibility to the state and away from counties, there were significant gains in the administration of justice, accountability to the ...

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