New Check on Blanket Judge Strikes Wins Praise: California Brief

New Check on Judge Strikes Draws Praise

The California Supreme Court meets in the Earl Warren Building in San Francisco

Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

California’s legal community is welcoming the state Supreme Court’s new check on blanket judge disqualifications, a change many saw as overdue after years of complaints that the system was ripe for abuse, Quinn Wilson reports. The court’s May 28 decision allows challenges to disqualification motions under the Code of Civil Procedure when they are allegedly part of a “bad faith blanket policy,” overturning part of a 1977 precedent that had made timely motions essentially automatic.

The case was prompted by 325 disqualification challenges filed by the San Joaquin County Counsel’s ...