This Daily Journal article by Malcolm Maclachlan seems almost guaranteed to trigger Governor Newsom to within days appoint someone to fill the more-than-12–month-long vacancy on the Supreme Court. Well, the article plus the fact that there are only 52 days before Newsom’s term expires.
The article reports that UC Berkely Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky called it “inexcusable” and “inexplicable” for Newsom to leave the court seat open for so long. He also suggested that the appointment-to-confirmation process — evaluation by the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation and then a hearing before the Commission on Judicial Appointments — might take too long for the Governor to fill the vacancy before his term ends.
I doubt that Newsom has taken too long to have an appointee confirmed. When Governor Jerry Brown waited until the very end of his term to appoint Joshua Groban to fill an almost 15-month vacancy, he did so on November 14, 2018 and Groban was confirmed on December 21. But the JNE Commission did have a head start with Groban — in August, Brown had asked JNE to evaluate Groban for a Court of Appeal seat.
[Update: Appointment-to-confirmation times for other Brown appointees varied from 28 to 37 days. For Newsom’s first appointee, Justice Martin Jenkins, the time was 36 days.]
Chemerinsky also said that if it is too late for a Newsom appointee to be confirmed, Governor Becerra would be happy to name someone. If a Newsom appointee is not confirmed before January 4, 2027, when Becerra takes office, Becerra could withdraw the Newsom appointment. (In re Governorship (1979) 26 Cal.3d 110.)
[Second update: This post was originally published before the Daily Journal story was updated with additional commentary, including with stuff from this post.]
Related:
What’s taking so long? Some guesses about why the Supreme Court vacancy is still unfilled
It’ll probably take a month or so before a new appointee can join the court
