Pete Sessions: “Since she was appointed to the Supreme Court, a couple things have happened that provide confidence in her good…”

“Since she was appointed to the Supreme Court, a couple things have happened that provide confidence in her good performance. During the 1998 election, she was on the ballot and had to win the majority of the vote to stay on the bench. The people of California, who didn't vote for President Bush and certainly are not a rightwing electorate, voted to keep Justice Janice Rogers Brown on the court with 76 percent of the vote. That is a big vote by any standard. Probably 20 percent of the people in California vote against anybody on the ballot. Other judges were on the ballot. She got a higher percentage of the vote than any of the other four judges on the ballot. That is an affirmation by the people of California. In 2002, for example, Justice Brown's colleagues on the supreme court relied on her to write the majority opinion for the court more times than any other justice. What happens on a court, such as a supreme court, once the court votes on how a case should be decided, they appoint a member of the court to write the opinion. If you write the opinion, you have to be on the majority side. If some don't agree and the majority agrees, then somebody writes the majority opinion for the court. We have had the suggestion that this justice of the California Supreme Court is somehow out of the legal mainstream, but in 2002, more than any other justice on the court, she was called on to write the majority opinion.…”