SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today released applicant and appointee data for the administration’s judicial appointments.
Since Governor Brown took office, there have been a total of 1,168 applicants for judicial appointments and 90 appointments. Women accounted for about one-third of the applicant pool and more than 34% of Governor Brown’s judicial appointees. Approximately 34% of the applicant pool identified themselves as American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African-American; Hispanic; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; or Other/Unknown and 37% of Governor Brown’s appointees were from these groups in his first two years in office.
Like 2011, Governor Brown’s 2012 judicial appointees included a number of notable firsts:
• Halim Dhanidina, the first American-Muslim judge ever appointed in California
• Jim Humes, the first openly gay justice to serve on the California Court of Appeal
• Miguel Marquez, the first Latino justice to serve on the Sixth District Court of Appeal
• Rosendo Peña, the first Latino justice to serve on the Fifth District Court of Appeal
• Chris Doehle, the first female judge to serve on the Del Norte County Superior Court
• Kimberly Colwell, the first openly lesbian judge to be appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court
• Mark Andrew Talamantes, the first Latino judge to serve on the Marin County Superior Court
• This is also the first time in the state’s history that a Latino/a is serving on all six Courts of Appeal in California.
Under SB 56 and SB 182, the Governor is required to disclose aggregate statewide demographic data provided by all judicial applicants by March 1.
**NOTE: Judge and Justice demographic data collected by the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts. State Bar membership data collected by the California State Bar.