SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today released judicial applicant and appointee data for the administration’s judicial appointments.
Since taking office in 2019, Governor Newsom has appointed 78 judges – including 62 in 2020 – from a pool of 776 applicants. Half of the Governor’s judicial appointees have been women and 56 percent identified themselves as Asian, Black or African-American, Hispanic, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
Governor Newsom’s judicial appointees have included a number of notable firsts, including:
- Justice Martin Jenkins, the first openly gay California Supreme Court Justice and only the third African American man ever to serve on the court.
- Justice Truc T. Do, the first Asian American woman Justice in the history of the Fourth District Court of Appeal and the first Asian American to serve in Division One of the court.
- Justice Teri L. Jackson, the first African American woman justice in the history of the First District Court of Appeal.
- Judge Wendy L. Avila, the first Latina Judge ever appointed to the Kern County Superior Court.
- Judge Corie J. Caraway, the first Asian-American Judge ever appointed to the Butte County Superior Court.
A copy of the judicial applicant and appointee data chart can be found here and is below:
Judge and Justice demographic data is collected by the Judicial Council of California and State Bar membership data is collected by the California State Bar, based on voluntary survey results. A more detailed breakdown of the demographic data collected by the Judicial Council and the State Bar can be found here and here.
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