Top Calif. Judge Faces Backlash Over Gay 'Marriage'

By Peter Gill: California Chief Justice Ronald George has spent more than half his life 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 May 15, when he heard the roar of a 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 opponents of gay "marriage" 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 2010 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.

"I really felt that as chief justice I had to have the broad shoulders because I knew there would be substantial controversy about it," he 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. Decisions by the California Supreme Court are often followed by state courts elsewhere.

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 Ronald Reagan, who appointed 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" ban, 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.