alifornia Supreme Court justices, who must be confirmed by the voters every 12 years or in the first general election after their selection, are next scheduled for confirmation in 2010. Our early recommendation is that if Chief Justice Ronald George seeks confirmation, voters should reject him.

Gov. Pete Wilson appointed George to the California Supreme Court on July 29, 1991. His rulings have alternatively miffed and nettled both law-and-order and social conservatives. Last week he outraged the former by writing a 4-3 decision that overturned Gov. Schwarzenegger’s decision to deny parole to a Los Angeles woman who served 24 years in prison for stabbing and shooting to death her lover’s spouse.

Sandra Lawrence, now 61, was 23 when she had an affair with Robert Williams. Williams vowed to divorce his wife, Rubye, and marry Lawrence. When he reneged, Lawrence drove to his dental office in 1971 carrying a gun. There she encountered Mrs. Williams and murdered her. After leaving the state for 11 years and returning to face a first-degree murder charge, she was sentenced to a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

The state parole board determined that she was suitable for release in 1993, but then-Gov. Wilson overturned the decision. It recommended her release again in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Then-Gov. Gray Davis overturned its decision once and Gov. Schwarzenegger twice. The three governors maintained that the horrific circumstances of Lawrence’s crime established a basis for denying her release, while Lawrence’s advocates argued that she had been rehabilitated. They pointed out that she had earned a B.A. and M.A. in Business Administration while in prison and had been taking courses in drug counseling at Loyola Marymount.

California parents struggling to finance their children’s college educations can hardly be sympathetic to using taxpayer money to finance a convicted murderer’s higher education, much less to the use of that free education as a get-out-of-jail-early entitlement.

In slapping down Gov. Schwarzenegger’s decision to keep Lawrence in prison, Justice George and the court’s majority ran roughshod over a 1988 initiative granting the governor the authority to deny paroles. Dissenting Justices Ming Chin, Marvin Baxter, and Carol Corrigan concluded that the court had overstepped its authority. We agree.

George’s bad decision is not his first and likely will not be his last. He recently invalidated California voters’ rejection of gay marriage. In 1997, he cast a key vote overturning a state law that required teenagers to obtain parental consent for abortions.

The last time George was up for confirmation in 1998, he secured a huge campaign war chest, endorsements by former Gov. Deukmejian and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and hired top GOP election law and campaign firms to preempt a grass-roots challenge by pro-lifers. We expect him to take the same approach should his name be on the ballot in 2010. But unlike George’s confirmation vote in 1998, he will next time be facing malcontents from both ends of the conservative spectrum.

When George was appointed to the state’s highest court 17 years ago, he had an outstanding record as a criminal prosecutor. While in office, he has earned a reputation as an able administrator. However, he will be remembered, not for these salutary attributes, but for his abysmal rulings, all of which reflect a disregard for the state’s electorate.