On June 19, the Senate confirmed Sandra S. Ikuta, the California Resources Agency deputy director and general counsel, to succeed Judge James Browning, who took senior status Sept. 1, 2000. Ikuta, who was nominated Feb. 8, was confirmed by a vote of 81-0.
Ikuta's confirmation leaves two vacancies on the court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on May 4 voted 10-8 on a party-line vote to send the nomination of N. Randy Smith, a trial judge from Pocatello, Idaho and former chairman of his state's Republican Party, to the full Senate. President Bush nominated Smith on Dec. 16 to fill the vacancy created when Judge Stephen S. Trott took senior status Dec. 31, 2004.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Judiciary Committee, rallied Democratic opposition to the nomination, saying that since both Trott-who moved to Idaho after his appointment-and his predecessor were from California, Trott's successor should come from this state as well.

Smith was unanimously rated "well qualified" by the American Bar Association's judicial evaluating panel.
Judge Thomas G. Nelson took senior status Nov. 14, 2003. The nomination of William G. Myers III to succeed Nelson was sent to the floor by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004 on a party-line vote of 10-8.

President Bush resubmitted Myers' nomination on Feb. 14 of last year.

Republican senators tried and failed in July of last year to force a floor vote on the nomination of Myers. The vote on the motion to invoke cloture was 53-44, short of the three-fifths required, with both California senators voting against. No agreement concerning Myers was reached when a bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise to avert filibusters on several other nominees.

Myers, who was first nominated on May 15, 2003, is a former solicitor of the Department of the Interior and now practices law in Boise, Idaho. In recent comments to reporters, he said he still considers himself a viable nominee for the court.

Costa Mesa attorney Andrew Guilford, a former president of the State Bar, was confirmed by the Senate on June 22 by a roll call vote of 93-0. Guilford was nominated Jan. 25 to succeed Judge Dickran M. Tevrizian, who took senior status on Aug. 5 of last year. The ABA unanimously rated Guilford well qualified.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Valerie L. Baker was nominated May 4 to succeed Judge Consuelo Marshall, who took senior status on Oct. 24 of last year.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Philip Gutierrez was nominated April 24 to replace Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., who took senior status on April 22 of last year. Gutierrez drew a unanimous rating of well qualified from the ABA.

Judge Gary Taylor took senior status Dec. 8, 2004 and retired to become a private judge with JAMS on June 30 of last year. Judge Nora Manella left the court in May following her appointment to the Court of Appeal for this district.

Judge Ronald S.W. Lew will take senior status September 19.

There are no vacancies.

Justice Laurence T. Stevens of Div. Five retired Feb. 28.

There are vacancies on the court resulting from the retirements of Judge Michael Knight Feb. 21, Judge Paula A. Mabrey April 28, Judge Charles Rubin April 30, and Judge Stephen Petersen June 26. Deputy District Attorney Judith L. Meyer was elected to succeed Petersen, effective Jan. 8. Successors to Knight, Mabrey, and Rubin are being elected in November runoffs.

Stanley Blumenfeld, a former assistant U.S. attorney and now a partner at O'Melveny & Myers, and Deputy District Attorneys Charles "Carlos" Chung, Lori Ann Fournier and Darrell S. Mavis were named June 20 to fill the other vacancies on the court, which were created by the retirements of Judges T.K. Herman April 21, John Sandoz May 15, and Paul G. Flynn and Jacob Adajian June 5.

The governor announced June 9 he would re-appoint Judge Dzintra Janavs, who was defeated in the June 6 primary election, "as soon as she completes the paperwork." Janavs' current term expires Jan. 8.

Commissioners Beverly Mosley and Roberta Lee retire today. Commissioners Martin L. Goestch and James Copelan are on long-term medical leave.

The following legislation of interest to the legal community was acted on in June:

•AB 1995, by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-Los Angeles, which would expand trial court employees' access to their personnel files. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 15 by a vote of 59-19, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee June 16 by a vote of 4-1.

•AB 2303, by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which would, as amended, make permanent the current schedule of sanctions for failure to appear for jury duty, increase the time in which to bring a cause of action against the estate or survivors of a deceased person against whom a cause of action survives from one year to two years, modify procedures for objecting to a petition for change of name, allow juvenile courts to conduct initial review hearings in dependency cases without waiting the six months provided for by current law, and make other substantive and procedural changes. The bill was amended in the Senate June 22.

•AB 2519, by Assemblyman Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, which, as amended, would require 10 years of active membership in the State Bar as a minimum requirement for service on the Superior Court. The bill, which as passed by the Assembly dealt with an unrelated issue, was amended in the Senate June 20.

•AB 2814, by Koretz, which would add elder abuse to the list of crimes as to which a prosecutor's schedule conflict is presumed to be good cause for a continuance. The bill, which passed the Assembly May 4 by a vote of 72-2, failed in the Senate Committee on Public Safety June 20 by a vote of 3-2, and failed by the same vote on reconsideration on Tuesday. The bill drew opposition from the Judicial Council and California Judges Association, who told the committee that calendar management issues are best left to the discretion of the court on a case-by-case basis.

•AB 2858, by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, which would amend notice procedures applicable to mental competency proceedings for criminal defendants. The bill, which passed the Assembly 80-0 on May 31, was approved Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Public Safety by a vote of 6-0 and referred to the Appropriations Committee.

•AB 2927, by Leno, D-San Francisco, which, as amended, would require any state agency that publishes an Internet Web site to include on the site certain information, including the terms of litigation settlements, and would authorize any person to bring an action to enforce the duty of a state agency to post this information and would provide for penalties including monetary awards to be paid by agency officers or employees in specified circumstances. The bill, which passed the Assembly by a vote of 80-0 May 31, was amended in the Senate Judiciary Committee June 22 to clarify that, among other things, it does not apply to information that is otherwise exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act and that the settlement disclosure requirement applies only to litigation to which the agency is a party.

•SB 1015 , by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, which, as amended, would require that certain financial information in divorce cases be "redacted." The provisions would have replaced provisions of a two-year-old law held unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds by Div. Seven of this district's Court of Appeal in its Jan. 20 ruling in Burkle v. Burkle. The bill, which has drawn opposition from female legislators, who argued that it could make it easier to hide assets from spouses, and from open-government advocates such as the California Newspaper Publishers Association, was placed on the Assembly inactive file last month, revived briefly this month, and placed back on the inactive file June 20.

•SB 1281,, by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, which would require all state contractors with more than 100 employees to pay their employees for the first week of jury duty. A previous version of the bill was vetoed by the governor. The bill, which passed the Senate May 30 by a vote of 22-14, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday by a vote of 6-3 and was sent to the Appro­priations Committee.

•SCA 16, by Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, which would require that Los Angeles Superior Court judges be elected by district, with each district to elect no more than 36 judges. A committee hearing scheduled for this week was postponed.