Last Friday's Recorder had With All Eyes on California's Supreme Court Vacancy, 2 Appellate Seats Go Unfilled for Years -- Gov. Gavin Newsom's office won't say if he's waiting to fill vacancies on the the state's San Francisco and Sacramento courts of appeal with administration lawyers.
For more than five months, California’s judiciary has waited for Gov. Gavin Newsom to make what will likely be the last Supreme Court justice appointment of his administration.
But beyond the political parlor game of who the probable 2028 presidential candidate will pick for the high court and why, Newsom has left two other important judicial vacancies sit unfilled for years with no clear explanation why.
Division Four of the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco has been without a fourth confirmed justice since Tracie Brown was elevated from associate justice to divisional presiding justice in April 2023. Similarly, the associate justice seat Laurie Earl vacated when she became presiding justice of the Third District Court of Appeal in July 2023 remains empty.
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