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At the Lectern

“Unanimity at the California Supreme Court: it takes a village”

September 9, 2022

Appellate attorney Jon Eisenberg responds to a Daily Journal column written a few months ago by David Carrillo and Stephen Duvernay, “The secret to SCOCA’s consensus.” (See here.)

Carrillo and Duvernay said that the Supreme Court’s “current high . . . unanimity rate is explained mostly by its unique frontloaded case-deciding procedure, with X factors of leadership personality and consensus culture.”

Eisenberg writes that the increased unanimity is “more likely” due to “the departures of Justices Stanley Mosk, [Janice] Rogers Brown and Joyce L. Kennard, who dissented far more frequently than their colleagues.”

Related:

“Everyone gets along on the California Supreme Court”

Law reviews focus on the Supreme Court, with differing views about court consensus

“California Supreme Court consistently unanimous, even in contentious cases”

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