By Greg Mitchell

A former prosecutor, Ardaiz is one of the state's most conservative justices on criminal law issues. More than half of his published opinions in the last two years came in criminal cases. He made headlines recently by upholding a search warrant that had been approved by the father of the sheriff's deputy who presented the warrant -- drawing an irate dissent from colleague Rebecca Wiseman. In fact, Ardaiz helped victims' rights activist Mike Reynolds draft the Three Strikes and You're Out law, something that brought him some criticism, particularly from liberals.

Ardaiz is the author of some of the windiest opinions from the court of appeal. They tend to open with lengthy statements of facts and procedural history (80 paragraphs in People v. $28,500 U.S. Currency, 51 Cal.App.4th 447), and quote liberally from the trial record, briefs and case law (nine full paragraphs of one Supreme Court opinion quoted verbatim in Stanislaus Natural Heritage Project v. County of Stanislaus, 48 Cal.App.4th 182.

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Ardaiz contribed $250 to Wilson's gubernatorial campaign in 1994 and small amounts to Lungren's AG campaign and Bill Jones' campaign for secretary of state. Ardaiz's wife, Pamela, contributed $300 to the 1994 Assembly campaign of Charles Poochigian, Wilson's former judicial appointment secretary.