Election 2026 · State of California

California Supreme Court

Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 1, 2026

Kelli M. Evans and Joshua Groban are up for a yes-or-no retention vote for the California Supreme Court on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

The California Supreme Court is the state's highest court. It can review any decision of a court of appeal, can take a case from a court of appeal before that court decides it, and hears appeals in death penalty cases. Two associate justices are on the November 3, 2026 ballot for a yes-or-no retention vote.

Summary by CityHallPass, not the official text or legal advice. The official text controls: LA County's official election information.

What it means for the City of LA

Cases from Los Angeles can reach this court. When a case decided by the Superior Court in Los Angeles County is appealed to the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court may review the Court of Appeal's decision, or take the case before the Court of Appeal decides it (California Constitution, article VI, section 12).

Up for a retention vote

For each name, voters mark yes to keep the justice in office or no to remove them.

The job

What the court decides. The Supreme Court “sits at the apex of the state’s judicial system” (Court Statistics Report). It chooses which Court of Appeal decisions to review, “in order to settle important questions of law and resolve conflicts among the Courts of Appeal” (Court Statistics Report). It must hear the appeal in every case where a trial court imposed the death penalty (Judicial Council, 2026 Court Statistics Report). The state budget describes its work as petitions for review, original petitions such as writs of mandate or habeas corpus, and “recommendations for discipline of judicial officers and attorneys” (2026-27 State Budget). Its decisions bind every other state court (2026-27 State Budget, Judicial Branch).

Size and seats. The court is the Chief Justice and six associate justices, each appointed or nominated by the Governor (Supreme Court). As of September 29, 2026, the court’s justices page lists Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero and five associate justices: Carol A. Corrigan, Goodwin H. Liu, Leondra R. Kruger, Joshua P. Groban and Kelli M. Evans (Supreme Court). Courthouse News reported that a Court of Appeal justice, Tara M. Desautels, sat “by designation” on an August 2026 decision (Courthouse News). The court hears oral argument in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento (Court Statistics Report).

Caseload, fiscal year 2024-25:

• 5,991 filings and 5,605 dispositions. Filings were 8,092 in fiscal year 2015-16 (Court Statistics Report).
• 51 written opinions. The count was 92 in 2016-17 and has been between 50 and 59 in each of the last four years (Court Statistics Report).
• 1,144 State Bar matters filed, including 219 attorney discipline matters and 887 resignations (Court Statistics Report). The court decides recommendations for discipline of attorneys (2026-27 State Budget), and “The State Bar Court serves the Supreme Court in administrative and disciplinary matters related to attorneys” (Court Statistics Report).
• 30 Court of Appeal opinions ordered depublished (Court Statistics Report). An unpublished opinion generally cannot be cited or relied on in other cases (California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115).

Budget and staff. The enacted 2026-27 state budget gives the Supreme Court $56.8 million and 156.2 positions, up from $53.4 million and 149.9 positions in 2024-25 (2026-27 State Budget).

Pay. When Gov. Newsom named Evans in August 2022, his office listed the associate justice salary at $279,677 (Governor’s office).

How justices get and keep the job. The Governor submits a nominee to the State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, which rates the nominee (Voter Information Guide). After public comment, the Commission on Judicial Appointments must confirm or reject the nominee (Voter Information Guide). It is made up of the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the state’s most senior presiding justice of the Courts of Appeal (Voter Information Guide; Judicial Branch). A new justice faces voters at the next governor’s election, and after that at the end of each 12-year term (Voter Information Guide). If a majority votes no, the Governor names a replacement, CalMatters explains (CalMatters, 2022).

Retention history. CalMatters notes that voters have removed Supreme Court justices only once, in 1986, “when voters who supported the death penalty unseated three justices over their records on capital punishment” (CalMatters voter guide).

Recent cases from Los Angeles. In November 2025 the court ruled 6-1 for the City of Los Angeles and against the police officers’ union over a warning printed on LAPD complaint forms (CalMatters). In 2024 it ruled 6-1 against a Los Angeles man convicted of a 1989 killing who sought a youth-offender parole hearing, reversing the Second District Court of Appeal (CalMatters). Groban wrote the LAPD majority opinion (CalMatters) and Evans wrote the dissent in the parole case (CalMatters).

Records

Kelli M. Evans

Before the court. Her statement of qualifications lists this career (Voter Information Guide):

• Ruth Chance Litigation Fellow, Equal Rights Advocates, 1994-1995 (Voter Information Guide).
• Assistant Public Defender, Sacramento County, 1995 (Voter Information Guide).
• Staff attorney and later associate director, ACLU of Northern California, 1995-1998 and 2010-2013 (Voter Information Guide).
• Senior Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 1998-2001 (Voter Information Guide).
• Attorney, Relman & Associates, 2001-2004 (Voter Information Guide).
• Federal court monitor, Northern District of California (2003-2010) and Northern District of Ohio (2015-2017) (Voter Information Guide). Bloomberg Law reported that this work included the Oakland police consent decree and the Cleveland police monitoring team (Bloomberg Law).
• Senior Director, Administration of Justice, State Bar of California, 2014-2017 (Voter Information Guide).
• Special Assistant Attorney General, California Department of Justice, 2017-2019 (Voter Information Guide).
• Chief Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary to Gov. Newsom, 2019-2021 (Voter Information Guide). The Governor’s office said she “helped shape California’s moratorium on capital punishment” (Governor’s office).
• Judge, Alameda County Superior Court, 2021-2022 (Voter Information Guide). Bloomberg Law reported that she took that bench in October 2021 (Bloomberg Law). Her court bio says she heard criminal and civil matters (Supreme Court bio).

She was admitted to the bar in 1994 (Voter Information Guide). The Governor’s office listed her as a Democrat, age 53, of Oakland, at nomination (Governor’s office).

Appointment and confirmation.

• Gov. Newsom announced on August 10, 2022 that he would appoint her to the seat opened by Justice Patricia Guerrero’s move to Chief Justice (Governor’s office).
• The State Bar’s evaluation commission rated her “well qualified.” The Associated Press, via KPBS, called that “a rare step lower than its top rating of ‘exceptionally well qualified.’” The commission did not explain the rating but concluded she “will make an outstanding Associate Justice” (KPBS/AP).
• The Commission on Judicial Appointments confirmed her unanimously on November 10, 2022. The panel was Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Presiding Justice Manuel Ramirez (Bloomberg Law; KPBS/AP).
• She took her seat in 2023 (Voter Information Guide). The AP reported that she is the court’s first openly lesbian justice (KPBS/AP). Bloomberg Law reported that she is Newsom’s third appointment to the court (Bloomberg Law).

Opinions reported by named outlets.

• Voting rights, Santa Monica (August 2023). She wrote the unanimous opinion holding that the Court of Appeal had “misconstrued” the California Voting Rights Act. CalMatters reported that plaintiffs challenging at-large elections need to prove racially polarized voting, not that minority voters could form a majority of a hypothetical district (CalMatters).
• Youth offender parole (2024), dissent. In a 6-1 ruling against a Los Angeles man convicted of killing an elderly neighbor in 1989, she dissented. She wrote that the exclusion “bears the taint of racial prejudice and perpetuates extreme racial disparities” (CalMatters).
• Pay for people in custody (April 2024). She wrote the ruling in a case against Alameda County, which held that county jail workers are not entitled to the state minimum wage. She wrote that whether the result “is a desirable policy is a matter beyond our purview, but it is not beyond the Legislature’s” (CalMatters).
• Workplace harassment, San Francisco DA’s office (July 2024). She wrote the unanimous decision that “an isolated act of harassment may be actionable” and that a coworker’s single use of the N-word may be enough (CalMatters).
• Indian Child Welfare Act (August 2024). She wrote the 5-2 majority opinion that sent a foster care case back because the county did not ask extended family about the children’s tribal ancestry. Groban wrote the dissent (CalMatters).
• Felony murder (June 2025). She wrote the opinion. It held that taking part in a “garden-variety armed robbery” is not enough, without more, to show reckless indifference, and reversed the lower courts (CalMatters).
• Gilead (August 2026), dissent. When the majority held that drug makers owe no duty of care over when to release a safer alternative drug, she dissented. She wrote that the ruling grants drug manufacturers “sweeping immunity from negligence liability” (Courthouse News).
• Riverside ballot seizure (argued August 2026). At argument she questioned the sheriff’s reading of the election law: “So it’s ‘in some event,’ despite the fact that it says ‘in no event?’” (CalMatters). The court ruled unanimously against Sheriff Chad Bianco on September 24, 2026, in an opinion by the Chief Justice (CalMatters).

Discipline. The Commission on Judicial Performance’s list of public decisions by judge’s name has no entry for Evans, and a site search for her name returned no results (CJP decisions list; CJP search, searched Sept. 30, 2026). The State Bar lists her as licensee 175241, admitted December 1994, now serving as a judge. For sitting judges it shows only name, city, license number and admission date, not discipline history (State Bar profile).

Prior retention votes. None. 2026 is her first time on the ballot (CalMatters voter guide).

Joshua Groban

Before the court. His statement of qualifications lists this career (Voter Information Guide):

• Law clerk to U.S. District Judge William C. Conner, Southern District of New York, 1998-1999 (Voter Information Guide).
• Attorney, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, 1999-2005 (Voter Information Guide). The State Bar evaluation report says he was lead counsel on the firm’s largest pro bono case, an Americans with Disabilities Act suit on behalf of “over 5,000 people with mental illness” in adult homes in New York City (JNE report).
• Attorney, Munger, Tolles & Olson, Los Angeles, 2005-2010 (Voter Information Guide). His court bio says his practice focused on “antitrust, internal investigations, and intellectual property” (Supreme Court bio).
• Legal counsel to Jerry Brown’s 2010 campaign for governor (Governor Brown’s office).
• Senior Advisor to Gov. Brown, 2011-2018 (Voter Information Guide). Brown’s office said he oversaw about 600 judicial appointments, which it said “have been lauded as the most diverse in the state’s history” (Governor Brown’s office).
• Lecturer, UCLA School of Law, 2014-2018 (Voter Information Guide), where he taught State Appellate Practice (Supreme Court bio).

The JNE report says he served on the board of the Larchmont Charter School in Los Angeles and, from 2009 to 2011, the Watts House Project (JNE report). He was admitted to the bar in December 1998 (Voter Information Guide). Brown’s office listed him as a Democrat, age 45, of Los Angeles, at nomination (Governor Brown’s office).

Appointment and confirmation.

• Gov. Brown named him on November 14, 2018 to the seat left by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar’s retirement (Governor Brown’s office).
• The State Bar’s evaluation commission rated him “Exceptionally Well Qualified” after its November 27, 2018 evaluation (JNE report).
• The Commission on Judicial Appointments confirmed him unanimously on December 21, 2018. The panel was Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline (Courthouse News; CalMatters).
• At the hearing, Kline said that with Groban, a majority of the court would be people who had never sat as judges, and asked whether that was “healthy.” He also said he knew Groban was qualified. Groban told the panel he hoped “to be conventional in the sense of being duty-bound by precedent” (Courthouse News).
• Courthouse News reported that Brown would swear him in on January 3, 2019 (Courthouse News), and he began serving that month (Supreme Court bio).

Opinions reported by named outlets.

• Youth under 16 in adult court (February 2021). He wrote the unanimous opinion upholding SB 1391, the law that keeps 14- and 15-year-olds out of adult court. The Imprint reported that prosecutors had argued it conflicted with Proposition 57 (The Imprint; CalMatters).
• Indian Child Welfare Act (August 2024), dissent. He dissented from Evans’s 5-2 majority. He wrote that its “rule of automatic conditional reversal” is “wholly inconsistent” with how California courts have judged state-law error “for almost seven decades” (CalMatters).
• LAPD complaint forms (November 2025). He wrote the 6-1 majority opinion striking down a state law that required a warning about penalties for false complaints against officers. He wrote that the statute “is not narrowly tailored” and “establishes an ill-defined, asymmetrical criminal provision” (CalMatters).
• Bail (April 2026), concurrence. The court ruled unanimously that judges must set bail a person can reasonably afford unless there is a valid basis to detain them. In a concurrence, Groban wrote that setting “unattainable bail” is “generally inconsistent with the constitutional right to pretrial release” (CalMatters). The LA Times quoted him: “A system in which a person’s right to liberty turns on financial resources compromises public safety and raises equal protection and due process concerns” (LA Times).
• Gilead (August 2026). He wrote the majority opinion holding that drug makers “do not owe a duty of care to users of a nondefective drug” when deciding whether and when to release a safer alternative. Evans dissented (Courthouse News).
• Guilty pleas and immigration (August 2026). He wrote the majority opinion reversing lower courts for a woman who pleaded guilty to a drug charge without understanding the immigration consequences (CalMatters).
• Riverside ballot seizure (argued August 2026). At argument he called the sheriff’s reading of “direct supervision” “more than counterintuitive” (CalMatters). The court ruled unanimously against Sheriff Bianco on September 24, 2026 (CalMatters).

Discipline. The Commission on Judicial Performance’s list of public decisions by judge’s name has no entry for Groban, and a site search for his name returned no results (CJP decisions list; CJP search, searched Sept. 30, 2026). The State Bar lists him as licensee 200095, admitted December 1998, now serving as a judge; for sitting judges it shows no discipline history (State Bar profile).

Prior retention votes.

The 2022 vote covered the four years left on Werdegar’s term (CalMatters, 2022). The LA Times editorial board wrote then that Groban “must complete a term that expires in just four years, before being eligible to seek a full 12-year term” (LA Times). This November’s vote is for that full term (CalMatters, 2022).

Endorsements

No 2026 editorial board recommendations and no campaigns for or against retention were found as of Sept. 29, 2026. In 2022 the LA Times editorial board urged a yes vote on Groban and the other justices then on the ballot (LA Times).

Money

Method: the Secretary of State’s Cal-Access campaign finance data, bulk export dated September 29, 2026 (Cal-Access raw data). We searched all committee names for each justice’s name and for “retain,” “retention” and “justice.” We also searched campaign statement cover pages, independent expenditure reports and itemized expenditures for each justice’s name. The only retention committees in the data are from earlier elections, such as a committee to retain Justice Werdegar, Groban’s predecessor, that closed in 2003.

Who is giving

No donor data exists because no committee has formed for or against either justice.

Outside spending

None reported in the Cal-Access data.

Key moments

Debates and forums

None. Retention races have no opponents. CalMatters notes that justices on the ballot “can’t campaign for the job, and voters don’t get to choose a replacement” (CalMatters voter guide).

Events

• Groban’s confirmation hearing (Dec. 21, 2018).
  • Courthouse News reported that Presiding Justice Kline raised the court’s lack of prior judicial experience. Kline said “a majority of the members of the California Supreme court will consist of people who have never previously sat on a court” (Courthouse News). CalMatters reported the unanimous confirmation and called Groban Brown’s “fourth and final Supreme Court nominee” (CalMatters).
  • Response: Kline said Groban had told him the seat should go to a trial judge or justice. Groban told the panel each justice brings “their own unique background and experience and point of view” (Courthouse News).
• Evans’s confirmation hearing (Nov. 10, 2022).
  • The AP, via KPBS, reported the State Bar commission’s “well qualified” rating as “a rare step lower” than its top rating (KPBS/AP). Bloomberg Law reported the unanimous vote (Bloomberg Law).
  • Response: at the hearing Evans said of the law: “At its core, what is the law about? It’s about real people and real communities” (KPBS/AP). She pledged “to administer justice fairly to the people of this state” (Bloomberg Law).
• Bail ruling (April 2026).
  • Both CalMatters and the LA Times reported Groban’s concurrence against bail set beyond a defendant’s means (CalMatters; LA Times).
  • Response: none from Groban beyond his written concurrence.