For recent developments regarding the non-publication of opinions, please look at NEWS.The purpose of the Committee for the Rule of Law is to ensure the legal system is held in strict account to the people and to the law. The Committee deals with the accountability of the adjudication process, not what the law, or any particular judgment should be.
The Committee seeks to revive full publication of all decisions of the United States Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeal of California in official reports and to eliminate all rules of court prohibiting the citation of approximately 90% of all decisions of our appellate courts to any court for any purpose.
The Committee brings to light that the courts of appeal across America have become judicial assembly lines dispensing inconsistent product rather than wisdom, often without significant involvement of any authorized justice, let alone three independent, qualified and prepared jurists. As a result the law is so inconsistently applied that the Chief Justice of California has publicly said, "You’d have a hard time telling the wheat from the chaff" when reviewing Court of Appeal decisions.
The Committee for the Rule of Law maintains that any rule restricting citation of, or which allows, secret, hidden, or unpublished opinions encourages expedient, not careful, consideration as the basis for judgment, and constitutes an invitation to error, incompetence, corruption and tyranny.
The Committee for the Rule of Law also maintains that full citation and publication of appellate opinions is necessary to allow the democracy to supervise application of the laws it maintains, correct error, assure equal and uniform application, reconcile inconsistencies, and continually improve the logic, purpose, consistency and justness of our laws, procedures and jurists.
The inconsistent application of law, which is intolerably painful to law abiding litigants and their attorneys, usually meted out by our Courts of Appeal in unpublished opinions, does not attract popular criticism because the judicial system has withdrawn what was previously both the implicit warranty of its work and the force that attracted the attention of the full democracy to every aspect of that work, namely that the law of each case becomes legal precedent for all of us.
The Committee for the Rule of Law believes that common sense and our sacred constitutions require that the unfettered discipline of stare decisis be restored to the judicial system.
WWW.Nonpublication.COM is provided to the public by the Committee as a compendium of information regarding the issues it addresses and its activities. Complete pleadings of cases challenging nonpublication and no citation rules are available at the web site. The web site also is a collection point for reports of irregular adjudications made in unpublished opinions. Requests for speakers or further information may be made through the web site.