Cedra Mayfield reports for Law.com that prolonged judicial vacancies aren’t exclusive to California. She also notes that a few states have avoided the problem by imposing time limits on their governors to make appointments.
The article focuses mostly on Georgia courts, but it also states that, because of Governor Newsom’s failure to fill a nearly nine-month-long opening on California’s Supreme Court, the court “continues to rely on pro tempore justices—lower court judges serving temporary assignments—to help manage caseloads.” It also says, “Two intermediate appellate court vacancies, one on California’s Third District Court of Appeal and one on the First, remain open as they have for three years now.”
Related:
What’s taking so long? Some guesses about why the Supreme Court vacancy is still unfilled
The effects of a prolonged Supreme Court vacancy, and whom might the new justice eventually be
“2028 ambitions loom over Newsom’s next state Supreme Court pick”
