Walter Croskey

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Walter Croskey is a Republican judge who was appointed by Deukmejian in 1987. He was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Deukmejian in 1985.

In 2008 Croskey, as part of a child abuse case, ruled that parents do not have the right to home school their children and that parents wishing to homeschool their children must have a teaching credential. This ruling was later reevaluated by the 2nd Court of Appeals (including Croskey) and overridden as touching this issue. [1] [2] From what little I have read (around 30 pages) of the second ruling, I am not much impressed by the analysis. I hope to investigate more.

One site I found stated that in 2009 Croskey ruled that the Police in California cannot use known illegal immigration status as a justification for launching a police investigation.[3] Having read this ruling, myself, however, I find nothing alarming. The case is a challenge to LAPD Special Order 40 (which is apparently no longer a technically correct way to refer to the policy) which among other things, prevents the police from launching investigations solely on the basis of illegal immigration status. First, this effects only areas served by the LAPD. Second, while I think the policy is overly broad, it is very legal and is not at all novel in 2009. (Though, the policy is older.) Medical Marijuana provides an interesting corollary. Like illegal immigration, medical marijuana is not federally legal. Nevertheless, it is legal in California, and California authorities apparently only have authority to enforce California laws, though they can generally investigate, and cooperate with the federal government to facilitate the enforcement of federal laws. Nevertheless, you won't find California police officers worrying about the medical marijuana issue, because it's really not their job anymore. (It may be more complex than that, but you get the idea. We don't enforce that law here. It's a federal thing.) Now, in the case of illegal immigration, apparently the LAPD can work with federal agents to facilitate their enforcement of the law, but they can't, as a matter of policy launch an investigation on that basis, which is perfectly legal, because it's not really their job. That's what this ruling comes down to, and whether you like it or not, it nonetheless seems correct, and I would expect nothing less than "correct" from a good judge. [4]

Chen v. Superior Court has also been cited as having been a bad call, but upon review, his ruling appears to be fair and non-ideologically incriminating.

Seems to be a moderate. Overall, I'm concerned about his handling of the issue of home-schooling, but other complaints against him do not appear (based on my limited legal background) to be well grounded.

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