Brown names legal adviser to Supreme Court
Gov. Jerry Brown acted Wednesday to fill the longest vacancy in California Supreme Court history by nominating his senior legal adviser, Joshua Groban, to the court.
“Josh Groban has vast knowledge of the law and sound and practical judgment,” Brown said in a statement. “He’ll be a strong addition to California’s highest court.”
Groban, 45, has been a senior adviser to Brown since 2011, overseeing the appointment of 600 judges. He was a lawyer for Brown’s 2010 campaign for governor, and he has advised him on litigation and policy issues.
He would fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, who left the court at the end of August 2017
after announcing her departure five months earlier. The longest previous vacancy on the court was the ninemonth period between the retirement of Justice Joyce Kennard and Brown’s selection of Justice Leondra Kruger to succeed her.
If confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, Groban will become the fourth Democratic appointee — all chosen by Brown — on the seven-member court. The last time Democratic appointees had a majority was in 1986, before Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other appointees from Brown’s first stint as governor, Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin, were denied new terms by voters after an opposition campaign that focused on their decisions to overturn death sentences.
The current court is less ideologically divided. Werdegar, an appointee of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, was a centrist who cast a crucial vote for the 2008 decision declaring a right to same-sex marriage in California, a ruling written by Chief Justice Ronald George, also appointed by Wilson.
Since Werdegar’s departure, her seat has been filled by a series of appeals court justices, chosen in alphabetical order. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has said the absence of a seventh justice has increased the court’s workload and hampered its productivity. It may have also discouraged the court from holding hearings in contentious cases that could have divided the remaining justices.
Brown has not said why he took so long to choose Werdegar’s successor. But keeping Groban on his staff allowed him to serve as an adviser until the end of Brown’s last term as governor. Delaying the choice after this month’s elections also means that Groban, if confirmed, will not have to face voters until 2022.
“I am truly humbled by this nomination and, if confirmed, I look forward to working alongside the highest court’s truly exemplary jurists,” Groban said in a statement released by Brown’s office.
Groban, from Los Angeles, graduated from Stanford and from Harvard Law School, and he was a civil litigation attorney in Los Angeles before joining Brown’s office. He also teaches appellate practice at UCLA Law School and is a registered Democrat.
Former Justice Carlos Moreno, in another statement released by Brown, called Groban “a thoughtful and deliberative selection” and said he was also pleased that the governor had named a Southern Californian to a court that largely consists of northerners.
State Supreme Court justices make $253,189 a year.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko