Today's DJ has More public defenders are being appointed as judges which notes that of the 69 superior court judges Gov. Newsom has appointed this year, 23 have backgrounds as public defenders.
- Last year, Newsom named Kelli Evans to the California Supreme Court, making her the first and so far only former public defender to sit there. That move came months after President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first former public defender on the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Of the 94 superior court judges he appointed in 2022, 22 have a background as public defenders. He also named four former public defenders to the appellate courts last year: 3rd District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Laurie Earl, 3rd District Justice Shama Hakim Mesiwala, 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 3, Justice Joanne Motoike; and 2nd District, Division 8 Presiding Justice Maria E. Stratton.
Also in today's DJ is the August installment of Exceptionally Appeal, Gombos gambit saves defective appeals about Gombos v. Ashe, 158 Cal.App.2d 517 (1958) and its doctrine allowing appellate courts to amend faulty judgments on appeal to make them appealable.