Springer will not run for re-election

Monday, May 18, 1998 | 9:53 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Chief Justice Charles Springer announced today he would not run for re-election, ending his 18-years, some of it tumultuous, on the Nevada Supreme Court.

"I have served long, and I think faithfully," said Springer. "And it is now time to move on."

"At my swearing-in ceremony 18 years ago, I promised that I would be impartial at all times and that as a judge I would have no friends and no enemies. I have paid a dear price for keeping that pledge; but I am very proud that I kept it."

In his final term, Springer has been involved in controversy. He and former Chief Justice Thomas Steffen were on the same side in the disciplinary case of a Northern Nevada judge, Jerry Whitehead.

The case made national news because of the intense discord on the court that it created. It sparked thousands of pages of briefs and motions.

It was his "most trying" time on the court, Springer said today.

In the past three years, Springer has authored a number of minority opinions, especially criticizing the state for breaking up families and taking children away from their mothers.

Springer said he has always seen himself as more concerned with protecting the rights of ordinary citizens than of powerful financial and political interests.

It's unfortunate, he said, that he and the court have come under a barrage of criticism from the media.

"This mostly undeserved putting down of the court has hurt the people of this state and its judicial system far more than it has hurt me and the other members of the court," Springer said.

He said he felt sorry for those who took up the task of "destroying Nevada citizens' faith in their judicial system."

"Of all the things I have done over the past 18 years on the court, what I am most proud of is that I have been able to persevere as the independent voice on the court, deciding cases in an impartial manner despite the criticisms that have often followed decisions which I believe to have been right, even though they were unpopular."

He said he is leaving the court in January "without bad feelings." He said he still is a professor at McGeorge Law School and teaches at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in Reno. And he might help at the new law school in Las Vegas.

"I see my retirement as the end of an era," he said. "I do not think it will be possible in the future for a candidate for this office to get elected, as I did, for less than $100,000. Half-million dollar campaigns, I am afraid, will keep people like me off the court forever."

Washoe District Judge Deborah Agosti of Reno has filed to replace Springer.