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Janice Rogers BrownJanice Rogers Brown (born in Luverne, Alabama, May 11, 1949) is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, having held that post since May 2, 1996. She is noted for being a politically conservative African-American judge, and has been mentioned as a possible Bush nominee to the United States Supreme Court to fill the next vacancy on the court - likely to come with the retirement of the ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist. President Bush previously nominated Justice Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003, but her nomination was stalled in the U.S. Senate, and was never voted upon. Brown is the daughter of a family of Alabama sharecroppers. She received her B.A. from California State University in Sacramento in 1974, and her Juris Doctorate from UCLA in 1977. She was a member of Governor Pete Wilson's staff, and was appointed by Governor Wilson to the California Supreme Court, despite the fact that she was the only justice to be rated "not qualified" by the state agency that evaluates nominees to the court. The purported basis of that negative rating, however, was not based on her views, but on her lack of judicial experience. Some of her opinions on the California high court have been controversial. She wrote the majority opinion upholding an amendment to the California Constitution prohibiting affirmative action for women and minorities; dissented from an opinion striking down a parental consent law for abortions; Brown has also surprised some conservatives with traditionally liberal positions on criminal sentencing and freedom of speech. She was the lone justice to contend that a provision in the California Constitution requires drug offendors be given treatment instead of jail time. External links Brown, Janice Rogers Brown, Janice Rogers
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