Chief justice expects wave of retirements, no decision on her own

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye expects "a wave of retirements" among judges next year and said she hasn't decided whether she will run in her retention election.

She made the comments Thursday during her annual meeting with legal reporters in response to a question about rumored retirements among justices on the 3rd District Court of Appeal.

Cantil-Sakauye said she has not yet decided if she will run in a retention election next year, which she will have to do if she wants to continue to serve in 2023 and beyond.

"I hope it's not true, but I'm told there's going to be a wave of retirements in 2022, whether it's at the 3rd or other courts or trial courts," Cantil-Sakauye said. "We're beginning to see a few. I myself have not heard personally about a particular time or person who intends to retire from the 3rd District Court of Appeal."

The chief justice also addressed questions about court backlogs, the state budget and -- indirectly -- the pending renaming of UC Hastings College of Law.

She declined to comment on a pair of petitions the court rejected asking it to address alleged backlogs in the 3rd District. Cantil-Sakauye said she must recuse from matters that name the Judicial Council of California because her job involves chairing that body.

The petitions were filed by Jon B. Eisenberg. The veteran appellate attorney based in Healdsburg said the court has long been among the slowest in the state, sometimes resulting in long delays in victims receiving restitution while defendants have had sentences vacated long after they have served them. The 3rd District did not respond to a request for comment.

Regarding her retention election, she joked she hasn't "consulted with the majority shareholder" yet, a reference to Mark Sakauye, a retired Sacramento Police Department lieutenant and her husband of 28 years.

"My husband compares me to one of these supersonic jets: 'You can't come to a full stop. You have to slow down in Nevada in order to land in California,'" she said. "He said so far with COVID I haven't slowed down in Nevada."

The pandemic and its effect on courts were a major topic during the hour-long meeting. The state's Legislative Analyst's Office projected a $31 billion budget surplus in November. But Martin Hoshino, the administrative director of the Judicial Council, warned the effective surplus will be far lower. One of the top priorities, he said, will be to get the money to fund the last 22 judgeships the Legislature authorized years ago but never funded.

"We do know the state is up against a spending limit, so there's really not the $31 billion everyone is talking about," Hoshino said. "There's probably a smaller number that's south of $10 billion. Still, that's a healthy amount."

The chief justice said another goal is to help superior courts deal with the case backlogs that have built up during the pandemic. Some courts have told the Daily Journal they're not even sure how big their case backlogs are, but the chief justice expressed optimism that using retired judges to settle civil cases will help. So will an increasing number of open courtrooms and pending trial dates, she added.

"As soon as we have a trial date and we march a case towards that trial date, the case settles," Cantil-Sakauye said.

The chief justice didn't directly answer a question about a pending name change for UC Hastings. After years of pressure, the school announced last month its board of directors had voted to "cooperate" with efforts to remove the name of its founder, Serranus C. Hastings. The state's first chief justice, Hastings, was also a major landowner who funded efforts to exterminate Native Americans during the 19th Century.

Instead, she recalled an effort she led in 2012 to take Hastings' name off a piece of research software used in the court system.

"When I heard it was called Serranus, I said 'We have to change that name,'" she said.