PD Endorsement: Judging justices at the ballot box

As ballots arrived at the homes of Sonoma County voters, readers started asking about the state judicial offices in the Nov. 8 election.

Four state Supreme Court justices and nine justices of the 1st District Court of Appeal, which hears cases from a dozen counties stretching from San Mateo to the Oregon border, are on the ballot for terms ranging from four to 12 years.

These are yes or no votes — unlike elections for trial court judges, which sometimes feature multiple candidates.

Simply finding information about appellate court candidates can be daunting, and few among us have the time or expertise to assess the legal reasoning in the thousands of pages of rulings handed down annually by California’s higher courts.

Appellate court and Supreme Court justices are appointed by the governor and must be confirmed by state Commission on Judicial Appointments, a panel comprising the chief justice, the attorney general and the senior appellate court justice, and then they come up periodically for retention votes. Before any confirmation hearing, they must be vetted by the state Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation.

While we support robust democracy, we think voters would be better served by shifting retention decisions to the Commission on Judicial Appointments.

But any such change would require a constitutional amendment, which cannot come before Nov. 8. So we did our best, as non-lawyers, to assess the 13 justices on the ballot and didn’t find any reason to oppose their retention.

At the top of the list is Patricia Guerrero, who was a federal prosecutor, a trial court judge and an appellate justice before joining the seven-member Supreme Court as an associate justice in March. Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated her this summer to succeeded Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who is retiring. The judicial evaluations commission gave Guerrero its highest rating and described her as “a brilliant choice.”

The other justices up for retention are Martin Jenkins, a Newsom appointee, and Joshua Groban and Goodwin Liu, both appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown. All three have extensive legal and judicial experience and, like Guerrero, received the top rating from the judicial evaluations commission. Moreover, they are members of a court that reflects California’s diverse population.

The state Supreme Court, under the leadership of Cantil-

Sakauye, who was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has seldom found itself in the spotlight. Its rulings are often unanimous, and its most contentious recent cases, such as bail reform and employers’ use of independent contractors, haven’t involved controversies such as reproductive rights and voting rights that have made the U.S. Supreme Court a lightning rod in national politics.

The Court of Appeal, one step down from the state Supreme Court, has jurisdiction over most appeals from the Superior Courts. Justices also are occasionally called on to sit with the state Supreme Court when there is a vacancy or one of the justices recuses himself or herself from a case.

In the 1st District, four of the nine justices on the Nov. 8 ballot were appointed by Newsom — Jeremy Goldman, Teri Jackson, Victor Rodriguez and Allison Tucher — and five by Brown — Tracie Brown (no relation to the former governor), Gordon Burns, Carin Fujisaki, Ioana Petrou and Therese Stewart. They offer a breadth of legal experience, and all three were thoroughly vetted before they were confirmed to the bench.

We don’t agree with every ruling by the state Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal, but we are confident that these justices are capable and experienced, and we recommend voting yes on their retention.

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