The Supreme Court issued two 4-3 opinions this morning — in People v. Chandler and Patterson v. Domino’s Pizza LLC. In each, the pro tem justice was one of the three dissenters. In Chandler, Second District, Division Two, Justice Victoria Chavez joined Justices Corrigan and Baxter in a concurring and dissenting opinion. In Patterson, Second District, Division One, Justice Victoria Gerrard Chaney and Justice Liu signed Justice Werdegar’s dissent.
By our count, since Justice Joyce Kennard’s retirement required a parade of Court of Appeal justices to sit on the Supreme Court by assignment, there have now been seven non-unanimous decisions and the pro tem justice on the case has been in the minority in all seven. That’s a definite trend. Of course, this doesn’t mean that pro tems are always disagreeable. During the same time, there have been 21 unanimous opinions that the pro tems have joined. So, a pro tem is more likely than not to sign the court’s opinion. However, whenever there has been a dissent, the pro tem justice on the case has been either part of it or the lone dissenter.
