After serving 25 years, justice steps down

by Brian Leubitz

Gov. Brown will get to make another appointment to the California Supreme Court, after Justice Joyce Kennard announced her retirement.

Kennard, 72, plans to resign effective April 5, giving Gov. Jerry Brown his second opportunity to fill a California Supreme Court vacancy after having appointed Justice Goodwin Liu in 2011.(SacBee)

Justice Kennard’s resignation date of April 5 will be exactly twenty-five years after she was appointed by Gov. Deukmejian.  Though appointed by a Republican, Kennard wasn’t a hard-liner. She was definitely business friendly, but also wrote a strong concurrence in In re marriage cases striking down Prop. 22 and allowing for our brief period of marriage equality back in 2008.

In holding today that the right to marry guaranteed by the state Constitution may not be withheld from anyone on the ground of sexual orientation, this court discharges its gravest and most important responsibility under our constitutional form of government. There is a reason why the words “Equal Justice Under Law” are inscribed above the entrance to the courthouse of the United States Supreme Court.

Given that he has a couple of months before she retires, Brown will likely take a few weeks to vet candidates for the post. A mid-March announcement seems the likeliest right now.