California's Chief Justice leaves the Republican Party

CALIFORNIA'S CHIEF JUSTICE TANI CANTIL-SAKAUYE

THE U.S. SENATE confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the last straw for California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. She is no longer a Republican.

“I’ve been thinking about it for some time,” Cantil-Sakauye  told CALmatters, The  consensus of her husband and frieds she said, was that “you didn’t leave the party. The party left you.”

The 59-year-old Filipina American is a rarity in California -- a moderate Republican of color. She was appointed to court's top post in 2011 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 

The news has not been good for the state's GOP, which lost seven Congressional seats in the midterms, including four in conservative Orange County. Republicans hold only seven House seats out of 53. Republicans is the third largest political entity in California, after the Demorats and non-affiliated. Cantil-Sakauye will join the latter.

During the Kavanaugh hearings, the nominee denied allegations by Christine Blasey Ford, a Palo Alto professor, that he assaulted her when they were high school students in Maryland. The Republicans approved his nomination despite Blasey Ford's convincing testimony.

Prior to the hearings, she wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticizing ICE agents arresting undocumented immigrants at courthouses.

“Enforcement policies that include stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair,” she wrote.

Sessions blew her off. Instead, he told her to talk to California's Gov. Jerry Brown and his support for sanctuary cities and opposed Donald Trump's attacks against immigrant communities.

 At an event at the National Press Club for judges and justices who discussed attacks on the judiciary by Donald Trump, she said, “I don’t believe the attacks are going to stop. I do not believe the undermining and marginalizing of the branch will ever stop. And it is people’s right to speak up,” according to CALmatters.

Cantil-Sakauye, who was appointed in 2011 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 

“I felt compelled to make a choice now,” said Cantil-Sakauye, the second woman to serve as California’s chief justice. “It better suits what I do and how I approach issues.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

Undocumented being arrested in the courts, says California chief justice

IN A LETTER, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye expressed her deep concern "about reports from some of our trial courts that immigration agents appear to be stalking undocumented immigrants in our courthouses to make arrests." 

The letter asked Homeland Security and the Attorney General to cease the practice.

“Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration laws,” Cantil-Sakauye wrote Thursday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. “[E]nforcement policies that include stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair.” 

Reports from attorneys up and down the state, from the urban centers to the Central Valley, are telling the Chief Justice that since January, ICE agents are arresting immigrants when they show up at courthouses, according to the Huffington Post. 

RELATED: Looking for an Asian/American in the U.S. Supreme Court

Cantil-Sakauye's Filipina mother was a farmworker, and her Hawaiian-born Filipino/Portuguese father, worked in sugar cane and pineapple plantations before moving to Sacramento. 

She is the 28th Chief Justice of the State of California. She was sworn into office on January 3, 2011 by then Gov. Arnold Swarzenegger. She is the first Asian/Filipina/American and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice.
Since Trump has taken office, border control officers and ICE agents have been more aggressive in going after people who have no documentation. In some instances, the agents have arrested people inside the courtroom.

"Enforcement policies that include stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair," reads the letter. "They not only compromise our core value of fairness but they undermine the judiciary’s ability to provide equal access to justice."

###