Raining judges

The Recorder has Newsom Nominates 3 More Appellate Justices, 27 Trial Court Judges -- The California governor's superior court selections include many lawyers with a background in criminal law.

The DJ has Newsom nominates 3 to courts of appeal, names 27 trial judges -- Justice Brian Currey was nominated to serve as presiding justice of the 2nd District Court of Appeal, Division 4, where he has been an associate justice since 2018. Two judges were nominated to the 2nd and 4th District Courts of Appeal.

California Supreme Court to Hold Oral Argument Outreach Session in San Diego -- The California Supreme Court will hold a special oral argument session June 6 in San Diego. The special session will be attended by students from local high schools, including a school serving unhoused youth. Other attendees will include students aspiring to be the first in their families to earn a college degree and participants in a high school law academy that draws from San Diego’s diverse communities.

2d District Courtroom Closure: Extended The Ronald Reagan State Building's courtroom will remain closed for construction to complete technical upgrades until further notice. An update will be provided once the date of reopening has been confirmed.

Law.com has How Justice Jackson Succeeded Justice Breyer in More Ways Than One -- From their style at oral arguments to their interaction with law clerks, the similarities between Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and her predecessor, Stephen Breyer, are striking.

And don't miss today's 9th Circuit certification to the Cal Supreme Court in Cassirer v. TBC:

The panel wrote that, in deciding to exercise its discretion to invoke the certification process, it considered that the case raised important, unresolved public policy ramifications of broad application regarding the ownership of stolen property, and that the issues were particularly thorny and substantial, given that stolen property cases may involve two innocent claimants to a specific piece of valued property which must be awarded to one claimant or the other. Further, in the spirit of comity and federalism, the panel recognized that the California legislature has expressed a particular policy interest in stolen art.

Dissenting from the certification order, Judge Bea wrote that, in his view, application of California’s three-step choice-of-law test to the facts of this case was straightforward, and Spanish law applied. Judge Bea wrote that improper certification harms state courts, strains the comity between federal and state courts, harms federal courts by encouraging forum shopping bids, and harms litigants through delays.