Friday, August 30, 2013

Cal Supreme Court recap

Emily Green is on a roll with another great Cal Supreme Court article headlining today's DJ recapping the Court's "past term." (Does anyone other than the press speak in terms of "terms" for the Cal Supreme Court? It's true there's a July/August break from oral arguments, but the work goes on...)
The gist of the article is the "greater ferment" at the court with "more dissents and less bloc voting" -- with 5 more cases having "dissents and concurrence-dissents" this term for a tally of 19.
Focusing on the Chief, the article says she "kept an overall low profile with her decisions," writing 11 opinions of which 5 were death penalty appeals (and only two were in civil cases). Retired Justice Sims is quoted as saying that the Chief "is to the right of Ron George on criminal cases [and] has moved to the right from where she was on the Court of Appeal."