Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye authored Monday’s Supreme Court opinion in a high-profile pension case, Cal Fire Local 2881 v. California Public Employees’ Retirement System. That wasn’t a surprise.
The Chief Justice frequently assigns to herself the writing responsibilities for the court’s most publicized matters. For example, besides Cal Fire, she wrote the opinions in such cases as Dynamex, Bristol-Myers, Hassell (plurality opinion), and In re Richards.
The court’s internal operating practices and procedures say that, in making opinion assignments, “the Chief Justice takes several considerations into account, including the following: (a) the fair distribution of work among the members of the court; (b) the likelihood that a justice can express the view of the majority of the court in a particular case; (c) the amount of work he or she has done on that case or on the issues involved; and (d) the status of the unfiled cases theretofore assigned to him or her.” An unwritten additional consideration — maybe call it “the buck stops here” factor — might be that the Chief Justice will often be the point person when the court issues a controversial decision.
Because of this last factor, it will not be shocking if the Chief Justice authors the opinions in the bail cases (the first of which was argued this week) or future pension cases.