"Diverse" appointments to superior, appeals courts

Bob Egelko
Saturday, May 19, 2012

SF GATE:

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed a former State Bar leader to a judgeship in Contra Costa County on Friday. He also nominated a former San Francisco school board attorney as the first Latino on the state appeals court in San Jose, and chose a Los Angeles prosecutor as California's first Muslim judge.

The appointees are:

-- Judy Johnson, 63, of Rodeo to the Contra Costa County Superior Court. Johnson was the State Bar's executive director from 2000 to 2011 and its chief trial counsel from 1994 to 2000 after 17 years as a prosecutor in San Francisco.

-- Miguel Marquez, 45, of San Jose to the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose. Marquez has been county counsel for Santa Clara County since 2009 and previously served as general counsel for the San Francisco Unified School District and a deputy city attorney in San Francisco.

If confirmed by the state Commission on Judicial Appointments, Marquez would become the first Latino to serve on a court that hears appeals from cases in Santa Clara, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Their population is almost 40 percent Latino, and the appointment underscores Brown's "campaign pledge to diversify the bench," said Chris Arriola of La Raza Lawyers Association.

-- Halim Dhanidina, 39, of Los Angeles to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Dhanidina has been a deputy district attorney since 1998 and will be the first Muslim on the bench in California, said Aziza Hasan of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. She said the appointment sends a message to Muslim Americans that "access and power within the system are achievable goals."

Superior Court judges make $178,789 a year, and appeals court justices make $204,599.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

This article appeared on page C - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle