Richard M. Sims III

On Sept. 15, 2008, the California Court of Appeals for Yolo County issued an opinion certified for partial publication in Martinez v. Regents of the University of California, in which Judge Richard M. Sims, III, wrote, "Defendants prefer the term ,undocumented immigrants.'

Judges Richard Sims, Vance Wallace Raye and Rodney Davis presided over the case which involved a lower court's decision that it was unconstitutional for the state to use CalPERS money to balance the state's budget.

"The fact that attorneys even requested a fee award of that absurd magnitude from the taxpayers is a testament to the unreal world of greed in which some attorneys practice law," said presiding Judge Richard Sims.

From left to right judges Richard Sims, Arthur Scotland and Fred Morrison.

Richard Sims, Bellville, TX

During the hearing, Presiding Judge Richard Sims recalled denying numerous appeals from people who wanted to overturn binding arbitration decisions.

"Why shouldn't we treat you like we treat all of the auto mechanics, the housewives and the banks?"he asked.

Sims criticized the state for entering into a binding arbitration agreement that failed to set a cap.

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Sims repeatedly recited the mutual agreement that binding arbitration was to be final.

"What are we doing here?"he asked.

The other San Diego firms involved are Sullivan, Hill, Lewin, Rez & Engel and Blumenthal, Ostroff & Markham.

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California Baptist University, Azusa Pacific University, and Oaks Christian School, by virtue of such rules as requiring faculty members to be Christians and making chapel attendance mandatory for students, are "pervasively religious" and thus ineligible for such state aid, according to the majority opinion by Judge Richard Sims.

"It is impossible to separate their religious aspects from their secular aspects," Sims wrote, even though the schools pledged not to use the facilities constructed with bond proceeds for religious purposes.

This violates the state constitutional prohibition against a California government granting "anything to or in aid of any religious sect, church, creed, or sectarian purpose, or help to support or sustain any school, college, university, hospital, or other institution controlled by any religious creed, church, or sectarian denomination whatever," Sims wrote.

His ruling specifically sidesteps federal constitutional issues.

When voters go to the polls this Election Day, there will be six names on the ballot that haven't been part of any advertising campaign: Rod Davis, Daniel M. Kolkey, Vance W. Raye, Ronald Boyd Robie, Arthur G. Scotland and Richard Sims.
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n Richard Sims: An Oakland native and graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, Sims has served on the 3rd District Court of Appeal since 1982.Prior to that, he served as counsel to the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, as a partner with a private law firm and as a judge the Placer County Superior Court.

For more extensive biographies, voters may consult the Courts of Appeal Web site at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/courtsofappeal/3rdDistrict/justices.Those without computer access may obtain a judicial information booklet by calling the state's Voter Assistance Hotline at (800) 345-VOTE.

Although the justices hear most of their cases inside a Capitol Mall courtroom in Sacramento, the court in 2000 began an outreach program to enhance public access to the court by taking its work to area high schools.The program lasts for two days, with judges holding question-and-answer sessions with students and teachers on the first day, then hearing actual case arguments in front of audiences of students, teachers and other members of the public.

* Richard Sims, 58, became assistant executive director of the San Francisco Committee on Crime and then the San Francisco Sheriff's Department's general counsel.He was in private practice before becoming a Placer County Superior Court judge in 1980.Two years later he was appointed to the 3rd District.