Blacks Not Expected to Fault Mayor’s Court Stand

Black voters will not fault Mayor Tom Bradley if, during the course of running for governor, he avoids taking a position on the reelection of California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, a Los Angeles NAACP official said Monday.

“I don’t think there is going to be a heavy judgment against someone who doesn’t take a stand on the individual justices,” said Melanie Lomax, first vice president of the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and a lawyer who helped raise $15,000 for Bradley’s 1985 mayoral campaign.

The court election is posing a quandary for Democratic candidates around the state who must contend with a rising tide of public hostility toward a court with a reputation for championing liberal causes. The court under Bird has drawn particularly heavy fire for its nearly unblemished record of overturning death penalty sentences.

Gov. George Deukmejian, whom Bradley would challenge if he enters the race, drew attention to the political difficulties surrounding Bird when he said last week that he thought the public is entitled to know where Bradley stands concerning the chief justice.

While Bradley has said he favors the death penalty, he has not said whether he supports Bird or other members of the court. Instead, he said earlier this month that a group of advisers was studying the issue and would help him decide whether to endorse the chief justice.

Lomax said the black mayor’s failure, so far, to endorse Bird is “understandable” to black voters because they realize that there is a “likelihood that his involvement in the issue could be damaging” to his campaign.

“The court election is likely to be a very ugly affair, and there will be efforts to smear any candidate who comes out for the justices,” she said.

A statewide public opinion survey in December indicated that black voters were considerably more supportive of Bird than any other ethnic group. Pollster Mervin Field found that 60% of black voters favored Bird’s reelection, compared with 45% of Latino voters and 32% of Anglo voters.

Lomax made her remarks after a press conference in which she acted as the spokeswoman for three groups of black and women lawyers who were endorsing Bird and three other Supreme Court justices, Joseph Grodin, Stanley Mosk and Cruz Reynoso, who have come under attack by conservative critics. Bird and her three colleagues are among six Supreme Court justices who must stand for election next November. The other two, Malcolm Lucas and Edward Panelli, were appointed by Deukmejian, a Republican, and have not been targeted for defeat by any group.

Lomax, who is also vice president of the Black Women Lawyers’ Assn., said the association sent a letter to Bradley advising him of the members’ desire to see the justices retained.

“The implication of our letter was that he join us in supporting the retention of the justices,” Lomax said. She went on to say that she thought that Bradley would be having something to say about the court election.

Independent Judiciary

“I would anticipate that he will take a stand in favor of the independence of the judiciary, but not necessarily in favor of all of the justices,” Lomax said, maintaining that such an approach would not be inconsistent.

She said such a stand would spare Bradley from having to make any controversial judicial endorsements, while allowing him to join court supporters in deploring any efforts by conservative critics to impose their political values on the court.

Mary Nichols, Bradley’s campaign manager, said that to her knowledge the mayor had not yet received the letter from the lawyers.