Author: California Constitution Center

Appellate rules of thumb

Analysis

12 Nov, 2023

Appellate rules of thumb

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Overview Experienced California appellate practitioners sometimes rely on two rules of thumb. One posits that when the California Supreme Court grants a petition for review, the court reverses about 60% of the time and affirms the other 40% of reviewed cases; call this the “60–40 rule.” The other bit of conventional wisdom (call it the “rule of thirds”) holds that the court’s docket is divided roughly into thirds: about one-third each of automatic capital appeals, general criminal, and general civil cases. In this article we evaluate these hypotheses. We found that the rule of thirds is inaccurate: at least 40%...

Why we’re not worried about SCOCA productivity

Analysis

1 Oct, 2023

Why we’re not worried about SCOCA productivity

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Overview In this conclusion to our series on the California Supreme Court’s recent performance we argue that the valid concerns some have raised about the court’s opinion output do not constitute a crisis. Annual decision tallies are just one performance metric that decreases in significance when considered with other factors. Comparing the decades 2000–10 with 2010–21, in the later period there were fewer petitions for review, more vacancies, more new justices without prior judicial service, a new grant-and-hold policy, and changes in individual justice performance. Considered together those distinctions can explain both the higher annual figures in the past and...

SCOCA is taking longer to decide its cases

Analysis

30 May, 2023

SCOCA is taking longer to decide its cases

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Overview The California Supreme Court is taking longer to issue fewer opinions compared with its past performance. In the 2022 review we showed that over the past 24 years the court’s unanimity rate steadily increased, while its opinion output steadily declined. In today’s study of the same period we examine how long the court takes to produce an opinion, measured by the time from the last reply brief being filed to the case being ordered on calendar for argument. The results show that this value has increased over time. Combined, the three data points suggest that over the past 24...

Analysis

12 Feb, 2023

SCOCA year in review 2022

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Overview In some ways this was a big year for the California Supreme Court, with two retirements and two new justices, which included a chief justice retiring and a new chief justice ascending. It was a small year from another perspective: the court issued the fewest opinions in the past 24 years. In this annual review we move away from past concerns about a Brown-Newsom split. Our past research shows that the appointing governor blocs make little difference on this court, and there is now a plurality: three Browns (Liu, Kruger, Groban), three Newsoms (Guerrero, Jenkins, Evans), and one Schwarzenegger...

Events

29 Oct, 2022

Event announcement: a recall debate

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The Bar Association of San Francisco presents: Recall Elections in California Date Thursday, November 3, 2022 MCLE Registration 3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Virtual Program 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. MCLE 1 Hour in Legal Ethics Speakers Senator Joshua Newman, California Senate District 29 David A. Carrillo, Lecturer in Residence, UC Berkeley Law and Executive Director, California Constitution Center Larry Gerston, Professor, Public policy, Civic Engagement and State and U.S. Politics Jamarah Hayner, President, JKH Consulting Joshua Spivak, Senior Fellow at Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform Moderator: Yolanda Jackson, Executive Director and General Counsel, The Bar Association of San Francisco and...

Events

24 Oct, 2022

Event announcement: Yes on 1

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Register here for this free online event. Connecting the Dots What is at stake for religious freedomwhen abortion rights are under attack?Thursday, October 27, 12:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m.Register to receive the Zoom informationHow will Prop. 1 impact the national conversation around abortion rights? Join the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area and National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) California, to hear answers. Featuring Liz Reiner Platt, director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School; David A. Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center; and Smriti Krishnan, government relations and advocacy manager at NCJW. REGISTER...

Analysis

22 Oct, 2022

Ballot measure analysis: Proposition 26 and 27

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Overview This article provides a pro/con analysis of Proposition 26, “California Sports Wagering Regulation and Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act,” and Proposition 27, “California Solutions to Homelessness and Mental Health Support Act,” on the November 2022 ballot. Both measures legalize sports gambling but take different forms. The main difference: Proposition 27 would allow online sports betting everywhere, while Proposition 26 would only allow gamblers to place bets in person at Native American tribal casinos and four horse racing tracks. Both propositions attempt to safeguard against underage gambling and prohibit gambling on youth sports, but only Proposition 26 makes it illegal to...

Analysis

13 Oct, 2022

November 2022 ballot measures described

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Overview In this article the California Constitution Center presents a pro/con analysis of each measure on the November 2022 ballot in California. This does not encourage a vote for or against any pending measure; it is instead intended only to fairly present the facts and arguments on both sides of the issues and to assist voters by objectively evaluating these measures for legitimate public informational purposes. The measures A complete list of the measures with links to the Ballotpedia descriptions: Proposition 1 Abortion Provides a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom, including a right to abortion. Proposition 26 Gambling Legalizes...

Analysis

24 Aug, 2022

How much experience do you need to be California’s chief justice?

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Overview Justice Patricia Guerrero likely will be confirmed as California’s 29th chief justice at the Commission on Judicial Appointments hearing on August 26, 2022, just five months after she was confirmed as an associate justice on March 22, 2022. That raises questions about how much judicial experience is necessary to lead California’s judicial branch. The answer is “not much” — reviewing the history of California chief justices shows that judicial branch leaders arrived with much, some, little, or no judicial experience. There is some evidence of correlation between two factors being predictive of success or failure (gauged by length of...

Opinion

23 Aug, 2022

Proposition 1 is good enough

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Overview In their SCOCAblog article “Fix the fatal flaw in SCA 10” Allison Macbeth and Elizabeth Bernal argued that California abortion rights, which rely on the same unwritten privacy interests the U.S. Supreme Court abrogated in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, are similarly vulnerable to judicial repeal. They suggested that an initiative measure could add specific, detailed reproductive liberty rights to California’s constitution. Absent that specificity, Macbeth and Bernal argued that a California version of Dobbs remained a risk. Macbeth and Bernal were right to argue for improvements to a law that will constitutionalize a woman’s right to choose...

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SCOCAblog is a publication brought to you by the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law and the UC Law Journal. Focused on substantive coverage of the Supreme Court of California, we analyze the court and its justices, cases and issues before the court, and news about California's judicial branch. Our contributors include former justices of the court, academics, and advocates experienced in appellate practice before the state high court.

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