The history of the California Supreme Court reflects
the history of California itself. After a long
period of Spanish and Mexican rule, California
was occupied by the United States in 1846 during
the Mexican-American War. On February 2, 1848,
Mexico officially ceded California to the United
States in exchange for $15 million. That same
year, gold was discovered in California. The tumultuous
events of the ensuing Gold Rush shaped many of
the issues that would later be decided by the
California Supreme Court.
1849 Constitution
In September 1849, 48 delegates assembled at Colton
Hall in Monterey to draft the state’s first
Constitution, which was completed in six weeks.
Article VI of the new Constitution, covering the
judicial branch, provided for a Supreme Court
consisting of a Chief Justice and two associate
justices. The Constitution provided that the first
three justices would be elected by the state Legislature
and that subsequent justices would be elected
by the voters for six-year terms in contested
elections.
The First Justices
In December 1849 the new Legislature elected Serranus
Clinton Hastings as California’s first Chief
Justice and H. A. Lyons and Nathaniel Bennett
as its first associate justices. Hastings, a former
Iowa representative to Congress, had resigned
his position as chief justice of that state’s
supreme court to come to California. After serving
on the California Supreme Court, he became state
Attorney General and later founded Hastings College
of the Law in San Francisco.
In February 1850 the California Legislature authorized
the clerk of the California Supreme Court to “rent
a suitable room” in San Francisco for the
court’s quarters. The chronicles of the
day record that the new clerk duly arrived and
purchased court supplies including “1 bottle
black ink,” “3 gross Gillett’s
pens,” and “24 sticks red tape.”
On March 4, 1850, the court convened for the first
time in the Graham House, a former hotel on the
northeast corner of Kearny Street and Pacific
Avenue. It was quartered there when California
officially joined the Union in September 1850.
Much of the litigation during this early period
dealt with the legal concerns of the people who
flocked to the state during the Gold Rush. Many
of their cases involved titles to property, mining
and agricultural issues, and rights to water and
minerals on public lands. Often those decisions
were not published. In the early years of statehood,
the opinions issued by the court filled less than
one slim volume of the Official Reports annually.
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The Court Grows
The California judiciary was reorganized in 1862
to meet the needs of a growing state. Article
VI of the California Constitution was amended
to expand the categories of cases the court could
hear and to increase the number of Supreme Court
justices from three to five. Terms of office were
increased from 6 to 10 years.
The Constitution Is Revised
In 1877 the people of California voted to hold
a state convention to revise the Constitution.
The call for a convention grew largely out of
the economic upheavals and political controversies
of the time. The Workingmen’s Party, a local
version of the widespread Granger movement of
the 1870s, played a major role in the demand for
constitutional change.
California’s population growth—from
100,000 in 1849 to 800,000 in 1877—reflected
the state’s new economic circumstances.
The gold mining concerns that dominated the first
Constitution had given way to agricultural, commercial,
and manufacturing interests.
The California Legislature responded to the voters’
mandate by passing an enabling act that authorized
the election of 152 delegates to meet in Sacramento
in September 1878.
When the convention finally adjourned seven months
later, in March 1879, major changes had been made
to California’s judicial system, which were
formalized when the voters adopted a new Constitution
in May of that year. The Supreme Court had been
expanded again. It was now to consist of a Chief
Justice and six associate justices, and terms
of office were increased from 10 to 12 years.
The categories of cases that the court was authorized
to hear were once again augmented, and all opinions
were required to be in writing.
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A Home for the Court
The question of where to hold Supreme Court sessions
was a topic of lively debate in early California.
The first court convened in San Francisco and
remained there until 1854. Subsequently the Legislature
mandated the court’s relocation to the state
capital, still to be selected. After a separate
legislative struggle, Sacramento was finally chosen
as the official seat of government, but because
the court initially held the Legislature’s
selection to be invalid, it spent most of 1854
in San Jose.
The court then moved to Sacramento, but it returned
to San Francisco in the early 1870s. By 1874 this
fluid arrangement was formalized. The Legislature
directed the court to hear oral arguments two
months each year in San Francisco and two months
each year in Sacramento. In 1878 the Legislature
directed the court to hear arguments twice yearly
in each of those cities and twice in Los Angeles,
as well.
During the 1879 Constitutional Convention, the
Judiciary Committee considered the pros and cons
of a “court on wheels” holding sessions
in different locations. Some delegates opposed
the expense and inconvenience of such an arrangement;
others debated the relative merits of the water,
weather, and whisky of the respective locations.
The committee decided to leave the matter unspecified
in the Constitution.
Coping With an Increasing Caseload
By 1882 the Supreme Court had a backlog of pending
cases, with an average wait of two years for a
case to be decided. In 1885 the Legislature directed
the court to appoint three commissioners to help
dispose of the backlog. Two more were added in
1889, but that did not sufficiently alleviate
the court’s workload.
In 1904 three Courts of Appeal were created and
the commissioners were eliminated. The new courts
were to handle all appeals in the “ordinary
current of cases,” leaving appeals in the
“great and important” cases to the
Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court also was given the power to
transfer a case from a Court of Appeal to itself,
from itself to a Court of Appeal, and from one
Court of Appeal to another. This provision gave
the Supreme Court the power to rule on the most
important legal questions and to resolve conflicts
among the appellate districts.
Subsequent Constitutional Amendments
A 1926 amendment to article VI of the Constitution
established the Judicial Council of California,
chaired by the Chief Justice. The council’s
mandate is to improve the administration of justice
and to enact rules of court practice and procedure.
The following year, another constitutional amendment
created the State Bar, a public corporation to
which all attorneys practicing in California must
belong. Each year, candidates for admission to
practice law are examined by the State Bar, which
then certifies to the Supreme Court the applicants
who meet admission requirements.
In 1934 noncontested judicial elections were adopted
for the appellate courts, including the Supreme
Court. Under this system, the Governor, subject
to confirmation by the Commission on Judicial
Appointments, fills vacancies in the appellate
courts by appointment. At the next general election,
voters decide whether the appointees should be
confirmed to fill their predecessors’ unexpired
terms and whether justices whose terms have expired
should be elected to new full terms.
Unifying the Trial Courts
In 1998 the California voters amended the Constitution
to allow each county’s trial judges to unify
their courts, if desired, into a single countywide
superior court system. Until then, separate municipal
courts in each county had handled the less serious
matters, such as misdemeanors, infractions, and
minor civil cases. All 58 counties have now consolidated
their municipal courts with their respective superior
courts. This restructuring has streamlined judicial
branch operations statewide, resulting in improved
services to the public.
The California Supreme Court justices in the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building, Sacramento, July 2006.
Left to right: Associate Justice Carlos R. Moreno, Associate Justice Joyce L. Kennard, Associate Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar, Chief Justice Ronald M. George, Associate Justice Ming W. Chin, Associate Justice Marvin R. Baxter, Associate Justice Carol A. Corrigan.
Source Credit: The text and photos from Part 3 of The Supreme Court of California (2003 & 2007 eds.) are used by permission of the Supreme Court of California. The entire booklet can be found in electronic form at:
