Thomas Fuller and Jill Cowan

After voting overwhelmingly Democratic in the midterm elections, California is about to get even more blue. Democrats control the executive branch, have a huge majority in the Legislature and for the first time in decades will have a numerical edge on the state’s Supreme Court: The expected confirmation this month of Joshua Groban, an adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown, will result in a court of four Democratic-appointed justices and three Republican-appointed ones.

If it were Washington, pundits would declare a political hat trick. The fact that it’s not Washington was made clear Tuesday in the annual state-of-the-judiciary briefing held by Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye.

The chief justice is a Republican who was appointed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yet she described the 600 court appointments Brown has made during his two terms as “fantastic.” She praised the state Supreme Court’s consensus-based approach and said she doubted that the court would be much different with a majority of Democratic-appointed justices.

“I think all of us value the fact that there can be no resolution without courtesy and civility and humor,” she said.

In her remarks, Cantil-Sakauye, 59, spoke about a new generation of judges who embodied what she described as California values — judges who cared about homelessness, climate change and “what are we going to do about guns.”

She defined the California ethos as “underdog centric” and criticized the federal immigration authorities for making arrests in courthouses. It almost sounded like a Gavin Newsom stump speech.

David A. Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law, said he was not surprised at the chief justice’s comments and her emphasis on consensus. In a study due to be published this month, Carrillo analyzed 302 opinions by the state Supreme Court over the past three years and found only one in which the justices appointed by Brown voted as a distinct bloc against the other justices.

“People ask this question all the time, ‘Why is California not polarized?’ We are divided as a nation but not so much as a state,” Carrillo said. “I think it’s particularly telling that we have a state high court that reflects that consensus.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/us/california-today-chief-justice-tani-cantil-sakauye.html" id="697be740-149c-3dd3-ad12-5bddd2c06489">The New York Times</a>.

(California Today)

C'Why Is California Not Polarized?' Ask the State's Chief Justice

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Thomas Fuller and Jill Cowan

Articles written by the author

C'Why Is California Not Polarized?' Ask the State's Chief Justice