Author: California Constitution Center

SCOCA is taking longer to decide its cases

SCOCA is taking longer to decide its cases

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...

SCOCA year in review 2022

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...

Event announcement: a recall debate

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...

Event announcement: Yes on 1

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...

Ballot measure analysis: Proposition 26 and 27

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...

November 2022 ballot measures described

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...

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

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...

Proposition 1 is good enough

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...

Handicapping California’s next chief justice

Handicapping California’s next chief justice

Overview In this article we speculate about possible scenarios and candidates for California’s next chief justice. We have no inside knowledge and advocate for no one. Our historical analysis identifies three scenarios: most likely, less likely, and least likely. The most likely scenario is a sitting associate justice being elevated to chief justice, and in this scenario a Court of Appeal justice probably gets nominated to fill the empty seat. The less likely scenario is a Court of Appeal justice being nominated to both fill the empty seat and to serve as chief justice. The least likely scenario is a...

Hail and farewell, Madam Chief Justice

California’s Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye will retire, she announced this morning in a media conference. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye will not file for retention election, and will vacate her position when her term ends in January 2023, having served a full 12-year term as California’s highest judicial officer. Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, she assumed office on January 3, 2011. She will be 63 when she leaves office, having served 32 years on the bench since Governor George Deukmejian first appointed her in 1990. Like her colleagues justices Carol Corrigan and Martin Jenkins, Cantil-Sakauye served at every level of California court...