Do recent retirements augur a shift in the Court’s jurisprudence?

In this earlier post, we linked to a paper drafted by Horvitz & Levy partner Jeremy Rosen on the future of the California Supreme Court and the impact of the then-impending 2010 gubernatorial election on the future of the Court. That paper discusses a number of important areas of law in which the Supreme Court as then constituted had been split 4-3. With the retirements of Chief Justice George, and now Justice Moreno, two of the justices comprising the majority in most of those 4-3 split decisions will have left the court. It is therefore possible that we will see movement in these areas of law, depending on the views of the new Chief Justice and of the unknown judge who ultimately will occupy the seat left vacant by Justice Moreno.