The downballot roll-off effect in action

The downballot roll-off effect in action

Overview The November 2024 election ballot in Alameda County saw an unusual occurrence: overlapping recalls of the Alameda district attorney and the Oakland mayor. Media coverage of these recalls portrayed those separate county and city contest results as being very similar. But a more detailed look shows a noted discrepancy in the vote totals among the Oakland voters who could cast ballots for both officials. Price did significantly better in Oakland than Thao, mainly because a significant number of the pro-Price voters did not also cast a ballot in the mayoral recall. This is probably explained at least in part...

Press protection under California’s constitution

Press protection under California’s constitution

Overview The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently denied the press’s requests for special constitutional protection under the First Amendment. This is unlikely to change under the Roberts Court. In fact, the Court may roll back existing press protections in the coming years. Press advocates must now look to other sources of protection instead. One promising possibility is state constitutions. California’s constitution, in particular, operates as a valuable yet underutilized source of protection for journalists and other newsgatherers. Discussion The Press Clause of the First Amendment has little independent meaning. For decades, the high court has extended protection for the press...

The path to recall in Los Angeles is easier than you think

The path to recall in Los Angeles is easier than you think

Overview The Los Angeles fires have led to recall threats against state and local elected officials, most prominent among them Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. California’s voters have a good understanding of what a gubernatorial recall looks like, but there has been confusion about what a recall against Bass would entail. Thanks to the state legislature’s controversial 2022 revision to the recall law for localities, there is a mistaken belief that an L.A. recall would be a lengthy and expensive process, which would end without the voters choosing the mayoral replacement.[1] That indeed was true in the...

SCOCA year in review 2024

SCOCA year in review 2024

Overview This year the California Supreme Court demonstrated that the past few years were a transition phase and gave some signs of what is to come. One year ago, in our 2023 year-in-review article, we observed that the court had settled into stasis, coalescing into such high unanimity that it simultaneously ruled out any appearance of partisan bias while also sparking concerns from other court watchers about uncritical groupthink and bare-minimum productivity. This year one factor in that discussion (the three-way split between the appointing governor blocs) remains the same, and in practice such partisan affiliation markers still provide no...

Takeaways from California’s recent local recalls

Takeaways from California’s recent local recalls

Overview There are two takeaways from this year’s general election results for the contests involving Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. Combined with the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, these contests are a clear voter rejection of sentencing reform and progressive prosecutors. And obvious flaws in recent changes to recall laws at the state and local level are now causing headaches for local officials struggling to apply the tangled new procedures to these contests. The results show that attempts by elected officials to discourage recalls failed,...

Analyzing Fourth District Court of Appeal Justice Guerrero

Analyzing Fourth District Court of Appeal Justice Guerrero

 Overview This article is not about Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero. Nor is it about Associate Justice Patricia Guerrero of the California Supreme Court. Instead, it is about the Justice Patricia Guerrero who sat on the Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One from December 2017 to March 2022. For this article we analyzed all merits decisions that Justice Guerrero participated in and looked for trends. We found nothing unusual. Instead, we learned that Justice Guerrero was a typical modern California appellate justice: her opinions had a high unanimity rate, she often voted with her colleagues, and she reversed consistently with...

Advice from state high court justices

Advice from state high court justices

Our friends at the Brennan Center’s State Court Report have published a collection of advice for law students from eight sitting and former state supreme court justices. Read it here. The headliner is California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu. Perhaps the best is this pithy reflection by Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick: “I would have advised myself to get better grades.” Sage advice for those of us who weren’t the smartest bears in the room back then, if only we knew. Subscribe to the State Court Report newsletter here — it’s a great resource for anyone interested in state...

Event announcement: SCOCA Conference 2024

Event announcement: SCOCA Conference 2024

Friday November 8, 20249:00am to 4:00pmLive in person at UC Law San Francisco and on Zoom. Click here to register! Program outline 8:00 to 9:00 Registration, coffee, and snacks 9:00 to 10:00 Chief Justice Guerrero keynote discussion about her transition into the role, the Judicial Council’s new leader and potential changes in administration, and the current state of the court. 10:00 to 11:00 Dean Chemerinsky will lecture on federalism, state sovereignty, independence of state high courts, and the limits of state power. 11:00 to 12:00 former Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye will reflect on her time on the court, her observations about...