The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts. Since 1850, the court has issued many influential decisions in a variety of areas including torts, property, civil and constitutional rights, and criminal law.
Rose Elizabeth Bird was the 25th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. She was the first female law clerk of the Nevada Supreme Court, the first female deputy public defender in Santa Clara County, the first woman to serve in the California State Cabinet, and the first female Chief Justice of California.
Josephine "Joyce" Luther Kennard is a Dutch-American judge and former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California. Appointed by Governor George Deukmejian in 1989, she was the longest-serving justice sitting on the Court at the time of her 2014 retirement, having been retained by California's voters three times—first to fill the unexpired term in 1990, followed by second and third consecutive twelve-year terms in 1994 and 2006.
Ronald Marc George is an American jurist. He previously served as the 27th Chief Justice of California from 1996 to 2011. Governor Pete Wilson appointed George as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1991 and elevated George to Chief Justice in 1996.
Morey Stanley Mosk was an American jurist, politician, and attorney. He served as Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court for 37 years (1964–2001), the longest tenure in that court's history.
Carol Ann Corrigan is an associate justice of the California Supreme Court. She is a former prosecutor.
Marvin Ray Baxter is a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California who served from January 1991 to January 5, 2015.
Carlos Roberto Moreno is an American jurist who is the former United States Ambassador to Belize, serving from June 24, 2014, to January 20, 2017. Previously, he served as a judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California from February 4, 1998, to October 18, 2001, and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from October 18, 2001, to February 28, 2011. Following his retirement from the bench, Moreno was counsel with Irell & Manella from 2011 to 2013. He has been a self-employed JAMS arbitrator since returning from Belize in 2017.
Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP (MTO) is an American law firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.. The firm represents clients in industries such as entertainment, technology, energy and healthcare.
Kathryn Jocelyn Mickle Werdegar is a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California, serving from June 3, 1994, to August 31, 2017.
Janice Rogers Brown is an American jurist. She served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 to 2017 and before that, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court from 1996 to 2005. She is a member of the Federalist Society and frequently features at events hosted by the organization.
Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye is an American lawyer and jurist who was the 28th Chief Justice of California and is the president/CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California. She was nominated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as chief justice on July 22, 2010, and retained in office by California voters on November 2, 2010, she was sworn in on January 3, 2011 as California's first Filipino and first woman of color to serve as California's Chief Justice. Prior to her appointment as chief justice, Cantil-Sakauye had served in judicial offices on California's appellate and trial courts. On July 27, 2022, she announced she would retire and not run for another 12 year term on the court in November and stepped down on January 1, 2023, leaving Governor Newsom to appoint her replacement. On September 28, 2022, the Public Policy Institute of California announced that Cantil-Sakauye would become its president and chief executive officer, effective January 1, 2023. On September 21, 2023, the Judicial Council of California voted unanimously to name the new Sacramento County courthouse after former Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
Mariano-Florentino "Tino" Cuéllar is an American scholar, jurist, and nonprofit executive currently serving as the 10th president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was previously a Justice of the Supreme Court of California, the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford University and director of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and an executive branch official in the Clinton and Obama administrations. His publications address problems in American public law, international affairs and international law, artificial intelligence, public health and safety law, and institutions and organizations. He serves on the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Social and Ethical Implications of Computing Research, he serves as chair of the board of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He was born in Northern Mexico.
Michelle Taryn Friedland is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Armand M. Arabian was an American lawyer who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California from February 3, 1990, to February 28, 1996.
Regents of the University of California v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 4 Cal. 5th 607, 413 P.3d 656 (2018), was a case in which the Supreme Court of California held that universities owe a duty to protect students from foreseeable violence during curricular activities. In an opinion by Justice Carol Corrigan, the Court reinstated the 2010 case in which Katherine Rosen, a former UCLA student, sued the university for negligence when another student stabbed her in a chemistry lab. Following this ruling, Rosen can continue to pursue the case in court.
The California Rule is a legal doctrine requiring that government workers throughout the state of California receive the pension benefits that were in place on the day they were hired, and that those benefits cannot be reduced ; meaning that mandatory employee contributions cannot be increased, nor can cost-of-living allowances be decreased, not even for not-yet-earned benefits. It treats government employee pensions as contracts protected by state's Constitution.
With the advice and consent of the United States Senate, the president of the United States appoints the members of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the highest court of the federal judiciary of the United States. Following his victory in the 2020 presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden took office as president on January 20, 2021. During the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, Biden pledged to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, although unlike his opponent, Donald Trump, Biden did not release a specific list of potential nominees during the 2020 general election campaign.
Holly Aiyisha Thomas is an American attorney serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court from 2018 to 2022.
