Former Governor Moonbeam, and current California Attorney General Jerry Brown had his suit to force the auto industry to pay for contributing to global warming knocked down by Honorable Judge Martin Jenkins ( a USF Law School Grad) in SF’s Federal Court on Monday. Essentially to rule in favor of California would undermine the Bush administration’s position on Kyoto and is better left a matter for federal lawmakers, according to Jenkins, a former pro football player with the Seattle Seahawks, who is now a presiding Federal Judge.

Jerry Brown actually did not initiate the controversial case, (that was done last October by his predecessor Bill Lockyer) but Jerry embraced the “public nuisance” aspects, and eagerly pursued the matter on behalf of the state to force automakers to pay damages related to global warming.

In another caveat, the former Oakland Mayor/Loft Dweller has also recently conceded that he’s heading for the hills, Oakland Hills that is. Why he won’t move to Sacramento where his actual office is, ya gotta ask him I suppose.

I do know that in the 70’s when he was governor, he refused to live in Sacto’s “Governor’s mansion” and had a $250 a month apartment. He and his wife have recently closed on a spot high above the homicides and have moved out of the 27th and Telegraph loft they shared for awhile. I know they’ll miss him at his old flatlands hipster hang Cafe Van Cleef (actually one of Oakland’s only hipster hangouts and Jerry wasn’t shy about telling ya to stop in)…

Pic I took of the scene at Cafe Van Cleef in Oakland on a night Jerry was there a couple years back, and more on the legal ramifications of the judge’s own job hunt after the jump…

Yeah, I know Jerry’s not in the pic, … I didn’t want to bug the guy anymore than I already had. These are some friends of mine instead.

Anyhow, in the suit Jerry lost Monday…
The judge in SF issued a 24 page opinion that basically said the “global warming” matter should be decided by lawmakers, not courts. This is obviously a setback for Jerry, as well as many locally based allies, environmental groups and clean air activists who’d hoped to negotiate or force changes to occur in the policies of the “big 6″ automakers. The suit charged that DaimlerChrysler , General Motors; Ford; and the North American subsidiaries of Honda, Nissan and Toyota were “among the world’s largest contributors to global warming and the adverse impacts on California”.

Ironically this legal setback in California occurs only days after a federal judge in Vermont said automakers had not proven that federal law preempted individual states from establishing greenhouse gas emission rules.

In that 240-page ruling the judge told automakers he was “unconvinced” that they could not meet “the challenges of Vermont’s and California’s GHG (greenhouse gas) regulations.” California was the first state to set greenhouse gas limits for autos, and 11 other states have followed with the auto industry filing suits along the way.

The Northern California Federal Court’s Judge Jenkins is an interesting character himself, having sat on some very high profile and high pressure cases recently including SAP vs Oracle, and the Wal Mart Sex Discrimination Case. He’s got the unusual resume of being a former NFL player, and in another career switch up, recently asked Governor Schwarzenegger for a vacant seat on the state’s appellate court. It is considered unusual for someone to give up a lifetime appointment in the federal judiciary for a temporary state appellate court position, (one that often comes with partisan political baggage, electorate approvals etc). Jenkins has been publically mum as to why he wants out. Maybe it’s the stress of being in the hot seat for such high profile trials, or maybe he’s got some political aspirations. Maybe the California State Judge salary & retirement package is sweeter than the Feds… who knows…

If Governator Arnie picks Jenkins for the appellate seat, it simultaneously does his conservative DC pals a favor as well, since it also opens up a chance for lame duck Republican president George W Bush to make a lasting judicial impact in the unusually liberal Northern California Federal Court system. Bush will appoint Judge Jenkins possible successor, something he’s only had one other shot at so far in our region. Could Harriett Miers, Alberto Gonzalez or some other worthy judicially minded soul be looking for a house out here already?

Meanwhile back in the casebooks: