Sacramento -- A Superior Court judge tossed out a lawsuit Friday claiming Jerry Brown was not qualified to serve as state attorney general because he had not practiced law for all of the five years prior to his election in November.
Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian rejected the lawsuit, saying that while Brown had chosen to let his membership in the State Bar of California be "inactive" from 1997 through April 2003, he was still eligible to practice law and had been eligible since his admission to the bar more than 40 years ago.
"The intent of this law was not to prevent someone in the circumstances of this candidate to be excluded from office," Ohanesian told lawyers for the case.
The parties who brought the case -- for political reasons, Brown claimed during last fall's campaign -- said the law states that a candidate for attorney general must have practiced law during the five previous years before taking office.
Details here from the San Francisco Chronicle.