SCOCAblog posts year in review

SCOCAblog has posted its SCOCA Year in Review 2019, analyzing the Supreme Court of California.

OverviewThe effect a majority of four justices appointed by Governor Jerry Brown might have on the California Supreme Court has been a major question in the past few years. After all, the last time four Brown appointees controlled the court it endured its most chaotic period in the last century. With the fourth Brown appointee (Justice Groban) having completed his first year on the court, we examined the court’s opinions from February 2015 to December 2019 for evidence that such times are upon us again. We found little support for a conclusion that another ultra-partisan-liberal Rose Bird era is dawning — in fact, the evidence so far is to the contrary.

We draw several conclusions:

• The lineup of four justices appointed by Governor Brown and three appointed by other governors has not divided the court. The court rarely decides cases by 4–3 votes in any period. And that rate is lowest in the Groban period.

• The court’s degree of consensus remained relatively stable across all three periods.

• Justices Liu and Chin are mirror-image opposites, so that Justice Chin’s upcoming retirement is potentially the largest factor in Justice Liu’s impact on the court going forward.

• The court’s opinion output trend remained relatively stable during its pro tem interregnum, in that it continued to decline.