George Nicholson

Associate Justice

Court of Appeals, Third District

Sacramento, California

George Nicholson is an Associate Justice on the Court of Appeal, Third District, State of California. He has served as a pro tempore associate justice on the California Supreme Court.   In 1998, voters confirmed him in his 23 county appellate district in the northeastern corner of the state, receiving 75 percent of the vote, or more than 508,000 votes.   His new term will expire early in 2011.    (See http://www.AppellateRetention.org.)

Prior to being elevated by Governor George Deukmejian to the Court of Appeal in 1990, he was a superior court judge, a municipal court judge, teacher, legal and education advisor to the governor, special and then senior assistant attorney general, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association, and senior trial prosecutor.   

Before he joined the bench, he helped craft and pass legislation to restore capital punishment, better protect elderly crime victims, and prohibit involuntary psychiatric examinations of rape and child abuse victims.   After he joined the bench, he did similar work to help provide literacy programs for youth and adult offenders.

Justice Nicholson’s appellate opinion clarified school governance law in California State Board of Education v. Honig (1993) 13 Cal.App.4th 720. Earlier, he was an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

While with Pepperdine, he helped conceive, organize, and conduct a leadership program in which in-service teachers and peace officers took Master of Arts degrees in school management and administration, and certificates of advanced graduate studies in educational leadership, innovation, and school safety.   He taught two of the 10 required courses:   Education 617, "Governance and Legal Aspects of School Administration," and Education 661, "Education in the Least Restrictive Environment," which addressed legal requirements schools face in dealing with the special needs of exceptional children.   This novel master’s program received personal commendations from the President of the United States, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Education.  

Justice Nicholson participated in Pepperdine University’s Symposium on Current Issues in Juvenile Justice in 1995.   His comments are reported in 23 Pepperdine Law Review 903 (1996).   He participated as interlocutor in a forum, The Social Compact:   Integrating Justice, Technology, and Safe Communities, at the conference on Justice and Public Safety in the 21st Century, Sacramento, 1996.   Among those who served on the distinguished panel of 12 national experts was Lisa Graham Keegan, Superintendent of Schools, State of Arizona.

While with the California Department of Justice, he reorganized and expanded the Crime Prevention Center, founded the California School Safety Center in 1980, and drafted the nation’s first constitutional right to safe schools which California voters adopted in 1982.   (California Constitution, article I, section 28(c).)   Working with Pepperdine University and the United States Departments of Justice and Education, he founded the National School Safety Center in 1984.   While the center’s chief counsel, he represented the National Association of Secondary School Principals and other amici curiae before the United States Supreme Court in Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986) 478 U.S. 675, co-authored “Campus Safety:   A Legal Imperative,” 30 Education Law Reporter 11 (1986), and School Crime and Violence:   Victims Rights, Pepperdine University Press (1986); the latter book is in its second edition (1992);   it includes a preface by Supreme Court Justices Stanley Mosk (California) and Melvyn Tanenbaum (New York).

As chair of the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee of the Federalist Society’s Working Group on Criminal Law and Procedure, working with Troy Eid, Chief Counsel to Colorado Governor Bill Owens and Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, among others, Justice Nicholson helped plan and conduct a panel discussion, “Did the Law Cause Columbine?” held in Washington, D.C., in August 1999, at the National Press Club.   The discussion was broadcast live, nationwide, on C-SPAN.   (For a transcript, go to < http://www.fed-soc.org/columbine.htm > and for two related articles see McCormick, Nicholson, Rosinek, Tanenbaum, and Rapp, “Citizens Urged to Collaborate, Act Against Violence,” School Safety, 4, National School Safety Center (Spring 1998); and Rivero, “Spreading Order Instantaneously,” Converge Magazine, 38 (November 1998), this article also appears at <http://www.convergemag.com/Publications/CNVGNov98/schoolsafety/ schoolsafety.shtm>.

He was principal author of Proposition 8, the Victims’ Bill of Rights, adopted by voters in 1982, and upheld by the Supreme Court in Brosnahan v. Brown (1982) 32 Cal.3d 236. (See Nicholson, “Victims’ Rights, Remedies, and Resources:   A Maturing Presence in American Jurisprudence,” 23 Pacific Law Journal 815 (1992); and Kelso and Bass, “The Victims’ Bill of Rights: Where Did It Come From and How Much Did It Do?” 23 Pacific Law Journal 843 (1992); also see Carrington and Nicholson, “The Victims’ Rights Movement:   An Idea Whose Time Has Come - Five Years Later:   The Maturing of An Idea,” 17 Pepperdine Law Review 1 (1989); Carrington and Nicholson, “The Victims’ Rights Movement:   An Idea Whose Time Has Come,” 11 Pepperdine Law Review 1 (1984);   Nicholson, Condit & Greenbaum, Forgotten Victims:   An Advocate’s Anthology, California District Attorneys Association (1977).)

His other works include several on interbranch governmental cooperation and effective use of technology in criminal and civil justice.   (See, e.g., Nicholson and Hogge, “Retooling Criminal Justice:   Forging Workable Governance from Dispersed Powers,” The National Conference on Legal Information Issues:   Selected Essays, 223, American Association of Law Libraries (1996); and Nicholson, “The Courthouse of the Future,” Research in Law and Policy Studies, volume 4, 337 (1995); and see   “Integrated Justice:   Experts Answer Questions,” featuring Hon. Roger Warren, president, National Center for State Courts, and Justice Nicholson, among others (<http://www.govtech.net/publications/gt/1999/apr/grid/grid.shtm and “Defining The Justice Enterprise, What is the ‘Justice Enterprise’ and what are some of the barriers to its attainment?”   (<http://www.govtech.net/publications/gt/1995/mar/jusenter.shtm>.)   He has authored and joined several appellate opinions dealing with important technology issues.   (See, e.g., National Identification Systems, Inc. v. State Board of Control (1992) 11 Cal.App.4^th 1446; NBS Imaging Systems, Inc. v. State Board of Control (1997) 60 Cal.App.4^th 328; and People v. Spence (2000) __ Cal.App.4^th ___.)

He is chair of an advisory committee of state, federal, and tribal judges working on a project, involving the Justice Web Collaboratory, to assist judges to visualize applications and to utilize the Internet in their daily, judicial work.   The project operates under the joint auspices of the National Center for State Courts and the Chicago-Kent School of Law.   (For more, go to <http://www.JudgeLink.org>.)

Working with Dean Rodney Smith and Professor Coleen Barger, he is guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, on technology and the future of appellate courts, to be published in 2000 by the School of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. (For more, go to <http://www.ualr.edu/~appj/ >.)

In addition to the journal project with the School of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, mentioned above, he earlier helped plan and publish a number of other special law journal issues.   The first, on the rights of crime victims, appeared in 1984.   Among others, Attorney General John Van de Kamp and Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig co-authored a joint preface.   (See 11 Pepperdine Law Review, no. 1.)   The second was a derivative special issue on the rights of crime victims.   Among others, President George Bush authored a preface.   (See 23 Pacific Law Journal, no. 3 (1992).)   The third was a special issue on psychology and the law.   (See 24 Pacific Law Journal, no. 3 (1993).)   The fourth and most recent was a special issue on the appellate process in California.   (See 45 Hastings Law Journal, no. 3 (1994).)  

Justice Nicholson is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for the Courts and the Media.   The Center occupies a new building, including a courtroom of the future.   It operates under the auspices of the National Judicial College.   According to the College’s President, Percy R. Luney, Jr., the Center is dedicated to “developing the dialogue abut the frequent tension between the right to a fair trial and that of a free press.   The program will provide ongoing dialogue, concentrated research, and dedicated coursework on issues of court/media relationships.   The Center will be the one place in the country where the judiciary and the media can come together in a construction environment.”   (For more, go to <http://www.judges.org/news/releases/pr_00034.html>.)

Earlier, he worked with the American Association of Law Libraries to help conceive and organize the Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee to develop strategies and mechanisms for getting law librarians directly involved in the implementation of information technology in the courts, legislatures, and other state bodies. (For more, go to <http://www.aallnet.org/committee/infotek/proposal.html>; and see David, “Technology and the Courts:   An Interview with the Honorable George Nicholson,” AALL Spectrum, 10 (October 1996).)

He is working on a paper relating to the Judicial Chambers of the Future and similar at-home facilities which will enable trial and appellate judges, state, federal, and tribal, to utilize the most advanced technologies, whether in chambers or at home.  The paper will also deal with the advent of wireless smart cars, or e.cars, by which judges may be virtually "in-chambers," even while on the road.   Finally, the paper will deal with “on-foot” judges who may acquire and use miniaturized, wireless resources to enable them to be “in chambers” or on the bench.

Serving with Judge Charles Kobayashi, Sacramento County Superior Court, Justice Nicholson is a community advisor to the Chinese American Council of Sacramento, and serving with the Honorable Illa Collins, Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, he is a community advisor to CAPITAL the Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Active Leadership.   (CAPITAL represents more than 140,000 Asian-Pacific Islander Americans in the Greater Sacramento Area.)   In both roles, he is helping improve court/community outreach through a variety of means, including technology.   (See California Judicial Administration Standards, section 39; and, for more, go to <http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/newsreleases/NR05-99.HTM>.)

Justice Nicholson was a member of the Commission on the Future of the California Courts, and chair of its technology and appellate courts committees, 1991-1993.   He is a regular faculty member of the Appellate Court Institute, conducted annually by the California Center for Judicial Education and Research.   He has twice served on the faculty of the National Judicial College.   He is a member of the American and California Judges Associations, and an emeritus “Master of the Bench” in the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court, McGeorge School of Law, one of the nation’s 300 Inns with 20,000 members, all devoted to promoting ethics, civility, professionalism, and legal competence.   For several years, he served on the Select Committee of Advisors, Pacific Law Journal, McGeorge School of Law.

Justice Nicholson received the Award of Merit for Outstanding Contributions to the Judiciary, American Judges Association, August 1998 (prior recipients include United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Chief Justice Richard Holmes of Kansas, and Dean Robert Payant, National Judicial College); the Leadership Award, Government Technology, May 1998; and an Award for 10 years of support and friendship for the goals and purposes of UNITY, a joint project of the Asian, La Raza, and Wiley Manuel Bar Associations, October 1997.   He was named an Honorary Member, American Association of Law Libraries, 1997, having earlier served with then-Assemblymember Delaine Eastin (now Superintendent of Public Instruction), as a Delegate to White House Conference on Libraries in 1992.    (There are only three honorary members in this 5,000 member, AALL organization; see <http://www.aallnet.org/press/press961126.asp>; and David, “Technology and the Courts:   An Interview with the Honorable George Nicholson,” AALL Spectrum, 10 (October 1996).