The new Chief Justice’s administrative priorities

As mentioned in this post, the current issue of the California Bar Journal has an excellent article regarding a candid interview with Chief Justice-elect Tani Cantil-Sakauye. In the interview, she discusses the four administrative priorities she will keep in mind as Chief Justice: (1) additional judgeships; (2) recruitment and retention of qualified judges and justices; (3) statewide adoption of the electronic case management system; and (4) construction of new court facilities. However, some of these priorities will likely have to wait while the new Chief tackles what she admits will be her most pressing concern upon taking office: the California judicial branch’s $315 million budget deficit for this fiscal year. As we noted in this early post, the need to obtain funding for California’s court system in the hurly-burly of recession-era Sacramento politics will be one of Cantil-Sakauye’s toughest tests as Chief Justice.