Help with Researching State Supreme Court Justices

[Nictuku]

There are 13!!! 13 State Supreme Court Associate Justices on my ballot (California). Other than researching each one to see what the internet has to serve up, does anyone know of a progressive advisor for this that might have done more homework on these individuals than I will probably be able to do? I don't ever remember seeing so many on a ballot before. The options are just Yes or No, they are not running against each other it seems. Any suggestions welcome!

[AmBlue]

1. Try www.vote411.org

Put together by the League of Women Voters. Just enter your address and this website tells you everything on your ballot. It provides a resume for each judge up for retention as well as who appointed them-- very useful for non-partisan races. Also useful is visiting candidates' websites to see who is endorsing them. Hope this helps!

[Tumbulu]

4. Thank you! I was just as confused!

This looks like a great place to find answers. But, it did not have any of the judges up for a bite. I wonder why. Or if the info is there but I could not find it.

[AmBlue]

8. Not sure

When I entered my info it came up with my entire ballot, one race, or judicial retention, or local Referendum at a time, providing background info on each so you can read up and make a decision. If your judges aren't there, try googling them individually and see what you find.

[Deuxcents]

2. My Florida ballot had yes or no options

To retain judges that were appointed by the governor. I did google them but what I didn’t like was they were appointed n not voted for so I voted no for all of them.

[elleng]

3. I'd look to see whether they (individually) were in the news,

made/wrote decisions of note the public might be interested in, so just 'google.'

[Laffy Kat]

5. There is also a website called...

ballotpedia.org that I found helpful.

[RockRaven]

6. The short answer is "vote yes" because it's just a rubber stamp kind of thing.

The medium length answer is: there's a process with a panel of people and then also the governor that puts them on the ballot (which you can read up on if you are inclined), and if you trust those people to make good choices you should vote yes. But if you vote "no" and the position is unfilled then the same darn process picks the next replacement candidate too, so...

The long answer is: Actually reading all the cases ever adjudicated by these judges in prior positions, and deciding for oneself if their rulings are sound... What? Ain't nobody got time for that.

[msfiddlestix]

7. I used Ballotpedia, it was a fantastic resource for quick reference on background and earlier

appointments. I'm in California, and though I didn't count all the judges on the ballot, I feel like there were about a dozen to sift through. I was able to learn of their earlier appointments, where they went to law school, and previous employment.

Most all the judges on my ballot were either appointed to lower courts by Newsom or Jerry Brown, most received their law degrees at various universities in California or Hastings in San Francisco. None were associated with Federalists Society or other right wing wacko fascists cult groups pretending to be aligned with the Founders.

The background info were summed up in short paragraphs. It did not include decisions or rulings. I relied on faith relative to the governor who appointed each one, and their specialized field of legal interests.

[AmBlue]

9. In Florida

Many of the judges up for retention were appointed by DeSantis, so I would personally LOVE to see them all replaced by Charlie Crist!

Something else worth mentioning: School Board races! The MAGA and Qanon crowd are in a full on push to take over our school boards. Even tho these are non-partisan races, it is ESSENTIAL to read up on these candidates and their endorsements.

[msfiddlestix]

12. Yeppers..

I am so grateful I left the South back in 1970 and planted roots in California. On the other hand, in recent years I regretted not sticking it out there and raising children with the intention of populating liberal/progressive thinking citizens. I was only thinking of my own sanity and desire to live in communities with like minded folks. There's a sense of guilt associated with those thoughts on the one hand, but on the other, I didn't see the ignorance and insanity spreading beyond the South.

There are certainly plenty of good people there, just never enough to make a difference it seems.

Lastly, I never dreamed it could be so much worse than it was back then.

[Nictuku]

10. Thank you everyone!

Very helpful answers and resources. I hope this can help others when it comes to Judges on the ballots.

[PlanetBev]

11. I googled every one of them

They all looked pretty good to me. Two of them were appointed by Schwartznegger, but I saw no evidence that they were anti-choice or right wing radicals. The other eleven were appointed by Democrats.