An extraordinary story out of California: Governor gives Chief Justice broad powers, including suspending laws, during coronavirus crisis. A snippet:
[Governor Gavin] Newsom’s order, issued Friday, gives [Chief Justice Tani] Cantil-Sakauye extraordinary powers, including the right to suspend laws.
The law is filled with deadlines, many to protect the rights of criminal defendants. There are public access requirements and rules about how legal matters should be conducted.
The governor said on Saturday the executive order was designed to give the judicial branch the flexibility that its leaders had asked for.
“This will allow them the ability, in real time, to meet the needs of the criminal and civil justice system,” he said during a COVID-19 news conference in San Jose.
Cantil-Sakauye said she assured Newsom that the new powers would be assumed “with utmost care and judiciousness.”
She stressed they were temporary and needed to ensure “the justice system will be available to those most in need.”
These are extraordinary times, and it makes sense to help an overburdened justice system be more nimble. But my immediate reaction is that even for the short term, this is a dangerous reallocation of power.
The Interdependent Third Branch 