Kevin Rector has an in-depth profile of Superior Court Judge Kelli Evans for the Los Angeles Times. Judge Evans is Governor Gavin Newsom’s intended pick to take Patricia Guerrero’s place as a Supreme Court associate justice. Guerrero is the nominated candidate to be chief justice and, if elected in November, she will assume her new position on January 2. If Evans’s impending appointment is confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, Evans will not face the voters until 2026.
According to those interviewed for the article, Evans “no doubt leans liberal, . . . [b]ut she doesn’t do so in an ardently ideological way . . . and she is unlikely to disrupt the existing cohesion of the already left-of-center California high court.” Evans herself said she “would bring her lived experience as a Black lesbian raised in public housing by a grandmother who viewed equal access — to education, to opportunity — as the key to her daughters and granddaughters achieving more.”
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“Evans’ identity is important”
The Governor should nominate Judge Evans now, not appoint her later