List of Justices of the Supreme Court of California

This is a list of Justices of the Supreme Court of California. The Supreme Court of California is the highest judicial body in the state and sits at the apex of the judiciary of California. Its membership consists of the Chief Justice of California and six Associate Justices who are nominated by the Governor of California and appointed after confirmation by the California Commission on Judicial Appointments (which consists of the Chief Justice, the Attorney General of California, and the state's senior presiding justice of the California Courts of Appeal; the senior Associate Justice fills the Chief Justice's spot on the commission when a new Chief Justice is nominated). Justices of the Supreme Court serve 12-year terms and receive a salary which is currently set at $228,856 per year for the Chief Justice and at $218,237 per year for each Associate Justice.

Under the 1849 Constitution of California, the Supreme Court had a Chief Justice and two Associate Justices, with 6-year terms of office. An 1862 constitutional amendment expanded the Court to a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, with 10-year terms. Since the adoption of the 1879 Constitution, the Court has had a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices, with 12-year terms.

The 1849 Constitution specified that the first Supreme Court justices would be appointed by the Legislature and that the justices would be subject to partisan direct elections from that point forward. The Governor could appoint justices in the event of a vacancy on the Court in between the elections. In 1910, elections for the Supreme Court became nonpartisan. In 1934, the state implemented the present system of gubernatorial appointment with retention elections, replacing the direct election of justices.

List of Justices

• Chief Justice Jackson Temple did not seek re-election in 1871, was elected as an Associate Justice in 1886 but resigned in 1889, and was again elected as an Associate Justice in 1895 serving (until his death in 1902). Therefore, he is listed three times.
•  *  denotes justices who served as Chief Justice for at least part of their tenure on the court while      denotes currently-serving justices.

Name	Assumed Office	Vacated Office	Appointed by
S. Clinton Hastings*	December 22, 1849	January 1, 1852	Legislature
Nathaniel Bennett	December 26, 1849	October 3, 1851	Legislature
Henry A. Lyons*	December 26, 1849	March 31, 1852	Legislature
Hugh Murray*	October 11, 1851	September 18, 1857	Governor McDougall
Solomon Heydenfeldt*	January 20, 1852	January 6, 1857	Direct election
Alexander O. Anderson	April 6, 1852	November 2, 1852	Governor Bigler
Alexander Wells	January 3, 1853	October 31, 1854	Direct election
Charles Henry Bryan	November 24, 1854	November 15, 1855	Governor Bigler
David S. Terry*	November 15, 1855	September 12, 1859	Direct election
Peter H. Burnett	January 13, 1857	October 12, 1857	Governor J. N. Johnson
Stephen Johnson Field*	October 13, 1857	May 20, 1863	Governor J. N. Johnson
Joseph G. Baldwin	October 2, 1858	January 2, 1864	Direct election
Warner Cope	September 20, 1859	January 2, 1864	Governor Weller
Edward Norton	December 18, 1861	January 2, 1864	Direct election
Edwin B. Crocker	May 21, 1863	January 2, 1864	Governor Stanford
John Currey	January 2, 1864	January 6, 1868	Direct election
Augustus Rhodes	January 2, 1864	January 5, 1880	Direct election
Silas W. Sanderson*	January 2, 1864	January 4, 1870	Direct election
Lorenzo Sawyer	January 2, 1864	January 10, 1870	Direct election
Oscar L. Shafter	January 2, 1864	December 11, 1867	Direct election
Joseph B. Crockett	December 1867	January 5, 1880	Governor Haight
Royal T. Sprague	January 6, 1868	February 24, 1872	Direct election
William T. Wallace	January 10, 1870	January 5, 1880	Direct election
Jackson Temple*	January 10, 1870	January 1, 1872	Governor Haight
Addison Niles*	January 1, 1872	January 5, 1880	Direct election
Isaac S. Belcher	March 4, 1872	January 5, 1880	Governor Booth
Elisha W. McKinstry	December 29, 1873	October 1, 1888	Direct election
Robert F. Morrison*	January 5, 1880	March 2, 1887	Direct election
Samuel B. McKee	January 5, 1880	January 3, 1887	Direct election
Milton H. Myrick	January 5, 1880	January 3, 1887	Direct election
Erskine M. Ross	January 5, 1880	October 1, 1886	Direct election
John Sharpstein	January 5, 1880	December 28, 1892	Direct election
James D. Thornton	January 5, 1880	January 5, 1891	Direct election
Jackson Temple	December 13, 1886	June 25, 1889	Direct election
Van R. Paterson	December 22, 1886	May 3, 1894	Direct election
Thomas B. McFarland	December 28, 1886	May 3, 1894	Direct election
Niles Searls*	April 20, 1887	November 6, 1888	Governor Bartlett
John D. Works	October 2, 1888	January 5, 1891	Governor Waterman
William H. Beatty*	November 6, 1888	August 4, 1914	Direct election
Charles N. Fox	June 25, 1889	January 7, 1895	Governor Waterman
John J. De Haven	December 18, 1890	January 7, 1895	Direct election
C. H. Garoute	December 19, 1890	January 5, 1903	Direct election
Ralph C. Harrison	December 20, 1890	January 5, 1903	Direct election
William F. Fitzgerald	February 2, 1893	January 7, 1895	Governor Markham
William C. Van Fleet	May 7, 1894	January 3, 1899	Governor Markham
Frederick W. Henshaw	December 29, 1894	January 1919	Direct election
Jackson Temple	January 7, 1895	December 25, 1902	Direct election
Walter Van Dyke	December 22, 1898	December 25, 1905	Direct election
Frank M. Angellotti*	December 11, 1902	November 1921	Direct election
Lucien Shaw*	December 11, 1902	January 1923	Direct election
William G. Lorigan	January 7, 1903	January 1919	Governor Gage
M. C. Sloss	December 19, 1906	March 1, 1919	Governor Pardee
Henry A. Melvin	September 28, 1908	December 1920	Direct election
Matt I. Sullivan*	August 22, 1914	January 4, 1915	Governor H. Johnson
William P. Lawlor	December 22, 1914	July 25, 1926
Curtis D. Wilbur*	January 1, 1918	March 19, 1924	Governor Stephens
Thomas J. Lennon	December 20, 1918	August 14, 1926
Warren Olney, Jr.	March 1, 1919	July 1921
William A. Sloane	December 15, 1920	January 1923	Governor Stephens
Charles A. Shurtleff	July 2, 1921	December 1922
William H. Waste*	November 25, 1921	June 6, 1940	Governor Stephens
Terry W. Ward	December 19, 1922	January 8, 1923
Frank H. Kerrigan	January 8, 1923	February 11, 1924
Emmett Seawell	January 8, 1923	July 7, 1939
Louis Wescott Myers*	January 15, 1923	January 1, 1926	Governor Richardson
John E. Richards	February 11, 1924	December 1932
John W. Shenk	April 14, 1924	August 3, 1959
Jesse W. Curtis, Sr.	January 1, 1926	January 1, 1945
Frank G. Finlayson	October 4, 1926	December 1926
Jeremiah F. Sullivan	November 22, 1926	December 1926
John W. Preston	December 27, 1926	September 1935
William Langdon	January 4, 1927	August 1939
Ira F. Thompson	December 31, 1932	January 1, 1947
Nathaniel P. Conrey	October 1, 1935	November 1936	Governor Merriam
Douglas L. Edmonds	November 23, 1936	December 31, 1955	Governor Merriam
Frederick W. Houser	October 1, 1937	October 12, 1942	Governor Merriam
Jesse W. Carter	September 12, 1939	March 15, 1950	Governor Olson
Phil S. Gibson*	October 2, 1939	August 30, 1964	Governor Olson
Roger J. Traynor*	August 13, 1940	January 31, 1970	Governor Olson
B. Rey Schauer	December 18, 1942	September 15, 1965	Governor Olson
Homer R. Spence	January 2, 1945	June 1, 1964	Governor Warren
Marshall F. McComb	January 3, 1956	May 3, 1977	Governor Knight
Raymond E. Peters	March 25, 1959	January 2, 1973	Governor P. Brown
Thomas P. White	August 25, 1959	October 31, 1962	Governor P. Brown
Maurice T. Dooling, Jr.	June 30, 1960	June 30, 1962	Governor P. Brown
Mathew Tobriner	July 2, 1962	January 20, 1981	Governor P. Brown
Paul Peek	December 2, 1962	December 16, 1966	Governor P. Brown
Stanley Mosk	September 1, 1964	June 19, 2001	Governor P. Brown
Louis H. Burke	November 20, 1964	November 30, 1974	Governor P. Brown
Raymond L. Sullivan	December 20, 1966	January 19, 1977	Governor P. Brown
Donald R. Wright*	April 17, 1970	February 1, 1977	Governor Reagan
William P. Clark, Jr.	March 23, 1973	March 24, 1981	Governor Reagan
Frank K. Richardson	December 2, 1974	December 2, 1983	Governor Reagan
Wiley Manuel	March 24, 1977	January 5, 1981	Governor J. Brown
Rose Elizabeth Bird*	March 26, 1977	January 5, 1987	Governor J. Brown
Frank C. Newman	July 16, 1977	December 13, 1982	Governor J. Brown
Otto Kaus	July 21, 1981	October 16, 1985	Governor J. Brown
Allen Broussard	July 22, 1981	August 31, 1991	Governor J. Brown
Cruz Reynoso	February 11, 1982	January 5, 1987	Governor J. Brown
Joseph Grodin	December 27, 1982	January 5, 1987	Governor J. Brown
Malcolm Lucas*	April 6, 1984	May 1, 1996	Governor Deukmejian
Edward A. Panelli	December 24, 1985	May 3, 1994	Governor Deukmejian
John Arguelles	March 18, 1987	March 1, 1989	Governor Deukmejian
David Eagleson	March 18, 1987	January 6, 1991	Governor Deukmejian
Marcus Kaufman	March 18, 1987	January 31, 1990	Governor Deukmejian
Joyce L. Kennard	April 5, 1989	April 5, 2014	Governor Deukmejian
Armand Arabian	March 1, 1990	March 1, 1996	Governor Deukmejian
Marvin R. Baxter	January 7, 1991	January 5, 2015	Governor Deukmejian
Ronald M. George*	September 3, 1991	January 3, 2011	Governor Wilson
Kathryn Werdegar	May 3, 1994	Present	Governor Wilson
Janice Rogers Brown	May 2, 1996	June 30, 2005	Governor Wilson
Ming Chin	March 1, 1996	Present	Governor Wilson
Carlos R. Moreno	October 18, 2001	February 28, 2011	Governor Davis
Carol Corrigan	January 4, 2006	Present	Governor Schwarzenegger
Tani Cantil-Sakauye*	January 3, 2011	Present	Governor Schwarzenegger
Goodwin Liu	September 1, 2011	Present	Governor J. Brown
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar	January 5, 2015	Present	Governor J. Brown
Leondra R. Kruger	January 5, 2015	Present	Governor J. Brown

External links

• California Courts Past & Present Justices
• California Supreme Court Justices from the California Supreme Court Historical Society
• Supreme Court of California