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California Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The terms of five California Supreme Court justices expired on January 1, 2023. Four seats were up for retention election on November 8, 2022. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye announced she would not file for retention to her seat.[1] Justice Patricia Guerrero was confirmed as the court's next chief justice on August 26, 2022. She was required to stand for retention to assume office as chief justice.[2] Four judges ran for retention.
California was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and results
Groban's seat
California Supreme Court, Joshua Groban's seat
Joshua Groban was retained to the California Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 68.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
68.0
|
5,664,354 | ||
No |
32.0
|
2,661,668 | |||
Total Votes |
8,326,022 | ||||
|
|
Guerrero's seat
California Supreme Court Chief Justice, Guerrero's seat
Patricia Guerrero was retained to Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 70.9% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
70.9
|
6,194,671 | ||
No |
29.1
|
2,537,627 | |||
Total Votes |
8,732,298 | ||||
|
|
Jenkins' seat
California Supreme Court, Martin Jenkins' seat
Martin J. Jenkins was retained to the California Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 69.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
69.3
|
5,825,582 | ||
No |
30.7
|
2,576,601 | |||
Total Votes |
8,402,183 | ||||
|
|
Liu's seat
California Supreme Court, Goodwin Liu's seat
Goodwin Liu was retained to the California Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 69.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
69.3
|
5,908,904 | ||
No |
30.7
|
2,623,045 | |||
Total Votes |
8,531,949 | ||||
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|
Justices not on the ballot
Voting information
- See also: Voting in California
Campaign finance
California Supreme Court
California Supreme Court
California Supreme Court
About the California Supreme Court
- See also: California Supreme Court
The California Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort. The court is composed of a chief justice and six associate justices, who are appointed by the governor to 12-year terms. Appointments must be confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The court has jurisdiction to review any ruling of the California Courts of Appeal, and also handles misconduct cases and discipline of state attorneys and judges.[4]
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election. Justices on the California Supreme Court are elected to their seats, and replacements are appointed by the governor in the case of midterm vacancies.
| ■ Martin J. Jenkins | Appointed in 2020 by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) | |
| ■ Carol Corrigan | Appointed in 2005 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) | |
| ■ Goodwin Liu | Appointed in 2011 by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) | |
| ■ Tani Cantil-Sakauye | Appointed in 2010 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) | |
| ■ Patricia Guerrero | Appointed in 2022 by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) | |
| ■ Leondra Kruger | Appointed in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) | |
| ■ Joshua Groban | Appointed in 2018 by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) |
Selection
- See also: Judicial selection in California
Justices of the California Supreme Court are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the California Commission on Judicial Appointments. The state bar's Commission on Judicial Nominee Evaluation (the "Jenny Commission," made up of attorneys and public members) is required to perform extensive investigation on prospective appointees. The commission recommends candidates to the governor after examining their qualifications and fitness, ranking them as exceptionally well qualified, well qualified, qualified or not qualified.[5]
The governor is not bound to these recommendations, but he is held accountable to the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which is free to approve or veto the appointment by majority vote.[5]
If they wish to retain their seat, newly appointed justices are required to participate in yes-no retention elections occurring at the time of the next gubernatorial race. (Gubernatorial elections occur every four years). After their initial retention, justices will serve a full twelve-year term.[5][6] Judges' terms begin on the Monday after January 1 following their election.[7]
Qualifications
Candidates are required only to have ten years of experience as a law practitioner or as a judge of a court of record.[5]
Selection of the chief justice
The court uses the same process for selecting its chief justice as for other justices. The governor, with commission approval, appoints a chief for a full twelve-year term.[5]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 76
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 89.5% (68)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Leondra Kruger (13)
- Per curiam decisions: 5
- Concurring opinions: 13
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Mariano Florentino Cuellar (7)
- Dissenting opinions: 5
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye (2)
For the study's full set of findings in California, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[9]
California had a Court Balance Score of -5.71, indicating Democratic control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, "Governor Newsom Statement on California Supreme Court Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye Stepping Down," July 27, 2022
- ↑ Judicial Branch of California, "Commission Confirms Justice Patricia Guerrero’s Nomination as Chief Justice of California," August 26, 2022
- ↑ On July 27, 2022, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye announced that she would not stand for retention to the office of Chief Justice.
- ↑ California Courts, "About the Supreme Court," accessed December 23, 2014
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: California," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Justices of the supreme and appellate courts," accessed April 7, 2014
- ↑ California Constitution, "Article 6," accessed May 21, 2014 (Scroll to Sec. 16)
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California
State courts:
California Supreme Court • California Courts of Appeal • California Superior Courts
State resources:
Courts in California • California judicial elections • Judicial selection in California
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