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At the Lectern

Governor who has kept Supreme Court waiting for a new justice asks court to expedite his case [Updated]

July 18, 2018

Today is Day 497 since Justice Kathryn Werdegar announced that she would be retiring from the Supreme Court and it’s been almost 11 months since she actually left the court.  Governor Jerry Brown has yet to appoint her replacement and the long vacancy has been interfering with the court’s work; so much so that Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye seven months ago publicly expressed her anxiousness to have the court back at full strength.  (See here and here.)  It might be at least another month until the governor makes an appointment.  (See here and here.)

Adam Ashton’s report in the Sacramento Bee — “Jerry Brown to Supreme Court:  Hurry up and hear my pension law case” — is thus more than a bit ironic.  The article refers to a letter the governor sent to the court on Monday in Cal Fire Local 2881 v. California Public Employees’ Retirement System that, according to the case docket, “request[s] the court to calendar this matter for arguments as soon as practicable.”  (Cal Fire and other pension cases are among the highest profile matters on the court’s docket.  (See here, here, here, and here.))

Because the court has not yet even sent an oral argument letter, a Cal Fire hearing might not be imminent.  In another ironic twist, the reason for the delay could be that the court is waiting for the governor to fill the court’s vacancy — a Daily Journal article back in December quotes the Chief Justice, “‘It’s difficult to operate without a seventh justice,’ said Cantil-Sakauye, who said some cases are stuck due to 3-3 ties.”

[August 9 updateCal Fire is not on the September calendar.  An October argument is not looking likely, either, because the court has still not sent an oral argument letter.]

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