This week, we’ve been taking a look at the voting patterns of pro tem Justices on the California Supreme Court since 2000. Yesterday, we showed that pro tem Justices have tended in civil cases to vote most similarly to what most would call the liberal wing of the Court –Justices Moreno and Liu. Justice Werdegar
Last week, we analyzed whether the California Supreme Court’s pro tem Justices have been more or less likely to vote with the majority than permanent members of the Court since 2000. This week, we’re looking at a related issue. What impact does the presence of a pro tem Justice on the Court for a particular
Last week, we reviewed the frequency with which pro tem Supreme Court Justices voted with the Court’s majority in criminal cases between 2000 and 2007. Today, we review the same data between 2008 and 2016.
Seventy-eight pro tem votes were filed between 2008 and 2016. For the period, 92.31% of the votes among pro tem
Last week, we analyzed how the voting patterns of the Court’s pro tem Justices differed from the permanent members of the Court in civil cases. This week, we’ll be looking at the voting patterns in criminal cases between 2000 and 2015.
Between 2000 and 2007, forty votes were cast by pro tem Justices in criminal
Yesterday, we began our investigation of a new question: how do the voting patterns of the Court’s pro tem Justices – Court of Appeal Justices assigned by the Chief Justice for one case to replace a recused or retired Justice – differ from those of the permanent members of the Court? We began our analysis
One of the principal distinctions between my two principal subjects of study – the Illinois and California Supreme Courts – is that Illinois has no system for replacing Justices when the Court is short by one or more members, either because of recusal or due to the retirement of a Justice who has not yet
For the past few weeks, we’ve been taking a close look at the California Supreme Court’s automatic death penalty appeals docket. Yesterday, we calculated the average time from appointment of counsel to the scheduled oral argument and looked at whether the total time under submission told us anything about what the ultimate result would be.
Last week, we continued our analysis of the California Supreme Court’s death penalty docket, tracing the number of cases which the Court decides every year, the fraction of the docket that’s decided unanimously, and the frequency with which the Court reverses in part or outright. Today we turn our attention to a controversial topic: how
Yesterday, we began our review of the California Supreme Court’s death penalty docket, looking at both the number of cases the Court decides each year, and its usual unanimity rate. Today, we turn our attention to a new question: what’s the reversal rate?
We must begin by defining our terms. As we showed earlier, death
Last week, we completed our look at the Court’s majority opinions across the spectrum from civil to non-death criminal cases to the Court’s docket of mandatory death penalty appeals. With the constitutional challenge to the Proposition 66 death penalty referendum still pending before the California Supreme Court, let’s take a closer look at the Court’s