Besides the high-profile political races in the upcoming election, voters will weigh in on appeals court and state Supreme Court judges.
Unlike in other races, these judicial positions don’t require voters to choose between opponents.
Rather, appellate and state Supreme Court judges in California go through retention elections — voters are asked whether they should retain their judicial appointments.
“It is a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down,” said Thomas Goethals, a former state appeals court judge. “Nobody can run against you. If there is a thumbs down, which frankly almost never happens, then the governor nominates your successor.”
Some states opt to have competitive elections for appeals court and state Supreme Court judges. That can lead to concerns that the judicial races are politicized, or that those who disagree with a high-profile appellate ruling can pay to back a judicial candidate more to their ideological liking.
“(These positions are) supposed to be bipartisan,” Goethals said. “You are supposed to let the chips fall where they fall based on the facts and the law.”
Goethals served as a state court judge and an appellate court judge and was subject to the rules of both competitive and retention elections. When enmeshed in particularly high-profile and controversial cases, there were rumors of someone preparing to challenge his state court seat, Goethals said, though no opponent ended up emerging.
Goethals said, in his experience, judges follow the law and the facts of cases.
But for state judges who preside in superior courts, there is still the knowledge that a particularly controversial decision, even if legally correct, could lead to a challenger. “Judges are human beings,” Goethals said. “You don’t like hearing someone is mad enough to try to run you out of the county.”
Appellate judges play a much different role than their colleagues in the state courts.
Those superior court judges are responsible for directly presiding over criminal and civil cases.
Appellate judges review the work of the state court judges — based on briefings and arguments by attorneys — and decide whether any mistake was made. The California Supreme Court is the ultimate word on state laws.
State superior court judges have six-year terms. Races are contested if a competitor emerges. Most state court judges are initially appointed by the governor after their predecessor retires in the middle of their term. But a judge can opt to retire at the term’s end, requiring an election.
Appeals and state Supreme Court judges — who serve 12-year terms — go through a much lengthier vetting process.
The Governor’s Office looks over a prospective appellate court judges’ background, as do multiple other legal groups such as the California State Bar. Candidates go before the Commission on Judicial Appointments, made up of the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, the state attorney general, and the presiding justice of the appeals court district where he or she would work.
A Supreme Court candidate has a pretty similar march.
“The process is much more thorough,” Goethals said. “And the chances of a horrible mistake being made are pretty remote.”