Justice Martin Jenkins yesterday announced he will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of this month. The court’s news release is here. (It figures that I’d be on vacation yesterday and unable to timely write about this big court news story.)
The news release quotes Justice Jenkins as saying, “I could not imagine a better capstone to my career on the bench than serving on the California Supreme Court.” And it was quite a diverse judicial career — he previously served on the federal district court and, in the California system, on the now-defunct municipal court, the superior court, and the Court of Appeal.
Jenkins’s appointment was particularly significant because, when he joined the court in December 2020, he became the first openly gay Supreme Court justice. When Governor Newsom announced Jenkins’s appointment, Jenkins spoke movingly about the milestone’s importance. “There’s significant responsibility that goes with being [the] first,” he said.
Court spokesperson Merrill Balassone tells At The Lectern that, although Jenkins is retiring in just three weeks, he will be assigned as a pro tem justice to rule on the 11 yet-to-be-decided cases in which he has heard oral argument. Supplemental post-argument briefing could delay opinions in three of those cases until February 9, 2026. (See here.) But he will not hear any arguments as a pro tem. Instead, Court of Appeal justices will sit to hear the calendars starting next month and continuing until a new permanent justice joins the court. (See here.)
Media coverage of Justice Jenkins’s retirement includes articles by Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle, Craig Anderson in the Daily Journal, and Cheryl Miller in The Recorder.
Related:
Justice Jenkins talks about the importance of being a gay, Black man on the Supreme Court
