Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero’s opinion today for a unanimous court in Travis v. Brand is her first as a Supreme Court justice. She became an associate justice at the end of March 2022 (here and here) and heard her first oral arguments the next month. Guerrero was sworn in as Chief Justice just four weeks ago.

A first opinion 10 months after joining the court is not unusual recently. Justice Jenkins’s first opinion filed over eight months after he became a Supreme Court justice. Justice Goodwin Liu took almost eight months, Justice Leondra Kruger took over seven months, and Justice Joshua Groban took almost 13 months.  On the other hand, Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar filed his first opinion for the court less than five months after he was sworn in and Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye filed her first opinion in less than six months.

As far as writing style is concerned, the Chief Justice shows she will be using footnotes (there are 8 in the 23-page opinion), unlike Justice Liu (see here). Also, this opinion included some long paragraphs.