U.S. District Judge Susan Illston is no stranger to media attention. This is the third time she’ll face national media attention since she 1995.
Monday, she is set to preside over Barry Bonds ‘ perjury trial. In the last 16 years, she has earned the reputation as a fair presence on the bench.
In 1999, she held that an athletic fence a a public high school is a “nonpublic forum” amd religious messages could be excluded without violating the First Amendment.
In 2004, Illston ruled in 321 Studios v. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Inc.. A trial covering a software program that made “backup” copies of DVDs. She issued an injunction and ordered 321 Studios to stop selling their product. However, despite finding that the software “violated Federal law,” she did say copies made by consumers (of their own legally purchased DVDs) were actually legal.
Most notably though, in 2006, she sent Patrick Arnold – the chemist involved with developing the “undetectable performance-enhancing drug” for BALCO – to prison for three months.
So far, according to the Associated Press, her patience has been tried in the buildup to the Bonds trial – especially after a “blizzard of motions” that will “undoubtedly draw a great deal of media attention.”
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