State Supreme Court nominee gets high marks in evaluation

Joshua P. Groban, Gov. Jerry Brown’s fourth and final nominee to the state Supreme Court during his second tenure as governor, will have reason to be confident heading into his hearing before the Commission on Judicial Appointments Friday morning.

In a letter released Wednesday, Chair David W. Fermino said the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation had judged Groban to be “Exceptionally Well Qualified” for the job.

“The rating reflects the Commission’s determination that Mr. Groban possesses qualities and attributes of remarkable or extraordinary superiority that enable him to perform the appellate judicial function with distinction,” Fermino wrote.

The rating was not unexpected. Groban had already been through a version of the process before when Brown asked the commission to evaluate him for a seat on the 2nd District Court of Appeal in August.

In 2010, Groban left his job as an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles to work as general counsel for Brown’s campaign for governor.

A year later, he took a job as a senior adviser to the governor and served as his main staffer in charge of helping Brown choose nearly 600 nominees for superior and appellate court seats.

Fermino wrote these judges represent “the most diverse group of appointees in the history of the state, not only in terms of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, but also in terms of practice background.”

It has been widely noted the Groban, like Brown’s three previous nominations to the court, lacks prior experience on the bench.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and 1st District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline will consider Groban’s nomination at 11:15 a.m. Friday in the Supreme Court chambers in San Francisco.

Groban is expected to be seated ahead of the court’s next oral arguments on Jan. 8.