Opinion: In today’s pages: Judges, Saturn and global warming

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The Times’ editorial page today applauds the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in a case involving a West Virginia appeals court judge who participated in a decision over the fate of a campaign contributor who helped get that judge elected. By finding that the probability of bias was too high to be constitutionally tolerable, the court has set a precedent that will force judges nationwide to be more careful about potential conflicts of interest.

We also examine the purchase of GM’s Saturn brand by the Penske Automotive Group, which may be a sign of the future for automobile manufacturing -- it’s soon to be an American car company that doesn’t actually make cars.

And we lament that California’s ‘district of choice’ program, which allows students to attend better public schools in districts outside their geographic area, will expire July 1 unless legislation is passed to keep it alive. The program makes schools better by forcing them to compete for students, and a bill to extend it should be strengthened and passed.

Over on the Op-Ed page, columnist Jonah Goldberg thinks the rhetoric from President Obama and other Democrats who compare the fight against global warming to the 1960s effort to put a man on the moon is just so much hot air. Even if these technological crusades were comparable, he says, the Dems’ favored solution, a cap-and-trade bonanza, isn’t the right solution.

We also get a postcard from former Times editorial page editor Andres Martinez, who writes that Americans should be more concerned about keeping Mexico economically strong -- because a failed state at the border would have serious national security and economic consequences. He says that you can do your part by booking your next vacation south of the border.

Finally, labor leader Maria Elena Durazo and L.A. school board member Steve Zimmer urge L.A. Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines to drop his plan to let individual schools decide how to spend federal stimulus funds. They also urge the teachers union to make sacrifices for the sake of students.