The AOC recently put together a 21-page spreadsheet listing all that it does. You can read it on the Judicial Branch website here.

The AOC counts the following among the services it provides:

• “Support to Civics Education program to improve civic learning and public understanding of the judicial branch including the California Task Force on K-12 Civics Learning.”
• “Local Blue Ribbon Commissions training and technical assistance."
• “Management of content strategy, publishing, and metrics evaluation for social media channels including YouTube and Twitter and consultation with other judicial branch entities on their programs.”
• “Photography support for judicial council and judicial branch programs, projects, and initiatives.”

You may note that the AOC does not perform any of the following functions:

• Issue protective orders in domestic violence cases.
• Sign search warrants.
• Decide which parent gets custody of a child.
• Rule on juror hardship claims.
• Set bail.
• Manage asbestos litigation.

The AOC doesn’t do any of those things. We do. And every dollar that the AOC spends on civics education or photography support or monitoring Twitter feeds is a dollar that isn’t going to hire clerks and reporters to work with us in the trial courts.

This latest document is hardly the defense of the AOC that it was intended to be. To the contrary: It’s an indictment. It’s a handy list of redundant and trivial bureaucratic activities that do nothing to improve public access to our courts. If the AOC wants to know why the Legislature and the Governor don’t take it seriously, it need look no farther than its own website.

Directors, Alliance of California Judges

Alliance of California Judges
1817 Capitol Ave., Sacramento, CA  95811

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