The U.S. Supreme Court banned those types of settlements in federal courts in 1994, and the California Judges Association supported legislation to overturn the Neary decision the same year. Gov. Wilson vetoed the bill. I feel morally and intellectually obligated to resist the doctrine and to urge our Supreme Court to repudiate it, as has the Supreme Court of the United States. It seems a substantial overreaction to take one paragraph in a well-done dissent and to say that by writing that, you've committed misconduct. No acquiescence Kelso believes the fact that Kline acknowledged a doctrine but said he would not acquiesce to it is what caught the commission's attention.
Some legal experts say that amounts to a refusal to uphold the law.
Fresno Superior Court Judge Dwayne Keyes, president of the California Judges Association, said the issue becomes complicated at the appellate level. But it takes on a different look when it's a minority opinion in an appellate decision. The Neary doctrine, he pointed out, is a judicially created rule which has been subjected to substantial criticism and rejected by most scholars. Judges in several courts throughout the state, including San Francisco, Alameda, Los Angeles and San Diego, have registered their objections to the disciplinary charges. In an unusual move, ABA President Jerome Shestack wrote to CJP director Victoria Henley asking that the investigation be dropped.