| Yesterday I noted that the Supreme Court would likely try to deal quickly with the appeal on the building case, as Schwarzenegger was practically begging for action. If the 6th district's stay isn't overturned shortly, the ball will be in Jerry Brown's court. Apparently, Arnold isn't too down with that, as well, Jerry Brown seemingly opposes the sale.
One problem: the Supreme Court is housed in one of those buildings, and so they have an interest in the litigation. And under the ethics guidelines, that means that they should recuse themselves from the litigation. They've now done that:
All seven state Supreme Court justices have removed themselves from participation in a lawsuit seeking to block the sale of 11 state buildings. They did not offer a formal reason, but it is safe to assume they did so because their court is housed in the San Francisco Civic Center Complex, one of the properties up for sale.
Because the Supreme Court justices recused themselves, the state will call upon seven appellate court judges to serve in their place, according to Judicial Council spokeswoman Lynn Holton. To select them, the Supreme Court will go down an alphabetical list of judges. That could happen as soon as this week.(SacBee)
Of course, because the 1st and 3rd districts are also housed in the buildings, the pool of judges is a bit thinner than otherwise would be the case. With all this wrangling, Arnold is rapidly running out of time for his little corporate endeavor here.
Also in that SacBee article was the fact that Schwarzenegger has just named the San Francisco Civic Center the "Ron George Civic Center." You'd think that he would confer with the city, but no dice. The whole complex, mind you, not just one building. But lest you be worried, the deal requires the new owners to retain the names of all of the facilities. |
