Senate Floor

The Assembly is now in session. Assembly Member Maienschein notices the absence of a quorum. The sergeant at arms will prepare the chamber, bring in the absent Members. The Clerk will call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Members, a quorum is present. We ask our visitors and us in the rear of the chamber and in the gallery to please stand for the prayer and the flag salute. Today's prayer will be offered by Assemblymember Grayson.

Please join in today's prayer. Almighty God, whose love is unconditional, whose mercy is everlasting, whose grace is sufficient, for which righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Grant us wisdom that we may defend those without and do justice to the afflicted, that we may learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, and plead for those whose voices go unheard. Let your peace that goes beyond all understanding reign over us this day as we give all glory and honor unto you. Amen.

Thank you, Assembly Member Grayson. Assembly Member Maienschein will lead us in the pledge. Please join me in the pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of.

The United States of America and to the republic.

You may be seated. Reading of the previous day's journal.

Assembly chamber of Sacramento Wednesday, March 23

Mr. Gallagher seconds that the reading of the previous day's journal be dispensed with. Presentations and petitions there are none. Introduction and reference of bills will be deferred. Reports of committees will be deemed read and amendments deemed adopted. Messages from the Governor? There are none. Messages from the Senate? There are none. Members, before we begin the joint convention, please clear your desks and put any items you may have inside your desk. Again, please clear the tops of your desk. Moving to motions and resolutions. Today's absences will be deemed read and printed in the journal. Majority Leader Aguiar Curry, you are recognized for procedural motions.

Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. I request unanimous consent to suspend Assembly Rule 118 a to allow Speaker Reevis to have guests on the floor and at the rostrum today without objection.

Such shall be the orders and guests.

We will now recess the regular session and convene the joint convention. Thankfully, everyone is seated. So, as we are aware, the Chief Justice and the associate justices of the Supreme Court of California have arrived. So I'm appointing a Joint Committee to escort the justices to the rostrum. The following Members, please retire to the rear of the chamber. Its Assembly Members Bonta, cholera, Maienschein and Pacheco. Senators Gerazzo, Seyarto, Umberg, and Wahab.

Joint Escort Committee, please escort the Chief Justice and the associate justices of the Supreme Court of California to the rostrum. So, welcome to all our guests here today, including our Governor, Mr. Gavin Newsom. We also have a Member of the Board of Equalization, Ms. Sally Lieber. We also welcome the other elected officials and guests from our legal, our community, and the Judicial Council of California. It is now my pleasure to introduce the President pro tem of the California Senate, Mr. Mike McGuire.

Well, good afternoon, Mr. Speaker, and to our Assembly colleagues. Thank you so much for hosting us today. Mr. Governor, it is always good to see you. We are grateful that you're here. First and foremost, it is an honor to be with each and every one of you this afternoon on this special occasion of California's State of judiciary. We want to recognize all of the Superior Court judges from across the golden state who have traveled far and wide and joined us for Chief Justice Guerrero's address.

Thank you for being here. Can we please give a round of applause to our Superior Court judges for here today at this time? Colleagues, we would now like to introduce each of the California Supreme Court associate justices, distinguished guests. Colleagues, let's welcome to the chamber's Justice Carol Corrigan, Justice Goodwin Liu, Justice Leandra Kruger, Justice Joshua Groban, Justice Martin Jenkins, and Justice Kelly Evans. We are grateful to each and every one of you for your tireless work and your commitment to equal justice for all Californians.

And ladies and gentlemen of the Assembly and the Senate, we also would like to extend a warm welcome to the California Supreme Court's Chief Justice, Ms. Patricia Guerrero. Ladies and gentlemen, when Justice Guerrero took on the role of leading our highest court last year, she set priorities for the Supreme Court. They are as follows. Enhancing public confidence in the judiciary, increasing transparency, and improving access to our justice system.

And the Chief Justice has certainly followed through on each of these commitments and works day and night to ensure, to ensure all Californians have equal access to our court system. And I think that you will agree with me today. Chief Justice Guerrero, she is a trailblazer.

As the first Member, first Member of the Latino community to hold the position of Chief Justice, she has incorporated a special focus on fairness, on equity and inclusion in an effort to ensure that our court system reflects the diverse communities it serves. I know that I could speak for speaker rebus and myself. It is an honor to be able to work with the Chief Justice and the judiciary, and we look forward to our continued partnership and work on behalf of the people of California.

Now it is with deep respect that we turn it over to the 29th leader of our state's highest court, as they say in the courtroom. All rise. We welcome California's Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero to provide California's annual State of judiciary address.

Thank you so much. Senate President pro Tem Mcguire. Speaker Rivas distinguished statewide constitutional officers and guests, and, of course, Governor Newsom. Thank you for the opportunity to deliver my State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the California Legislature, this time from your other house, the State Assembly. I guess you can say this is not my first rodeo, although it looks much different from the ones I'm used to growing up.

I join you today in the second year of my 12 year term of office, representing a judiciary that is strong and resilient, one that is committed to serving all the people of California, enhancing access to justice, and protecting the rule of law in our constitutional democracy. I also join you today as no longer the newest leader of a state branch of government. Congratulations to Speaker Rivas and Senate President Protem McGuire, who you recently welcomed to their new position.

And theirs, like mine, was a smooth transition of leadership that enables us to continue to pursue the objectives and values of our respective branches of government. Our presence here today demonstrates that good government does work, that collaboration and cooperation, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to public service can deliver three branch solutions to benefit all Californians. That is why I remain optimistic for the judicial branch and for our state.

I'm very proud to be joined here today by my colleagues on the California Supreme Court, our court Executive officer and our court staff, judges, justices, and court executives from local courts throughout the state, the Judicial Council, the California Judges Association, the Benchmark Coalition, and our justice system partners and stakeholders. Through this last year of listening to them, deliberating with them, seeking solutions with them, and striving to improve the Administration of justice, they have only grown in my esteem.

Today is a school day, so my biggest supporter, my husband Joe, and our two greatest sources of pride, our two sons, Anthony and Christopher, are watching remotely, or they said they would try. I'll quiz them later. When I addressed you last year, my focus was on the continuity of branch operations in a year of transition. And so now I would like to update you on some of the priorities that I mentioned last year. First, safeguarding and enhancing public confidence in the judiciary.

Earlier this month, we opened applications for this year's civic Learning awards for California public schools, cosponsored by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. Since the awards were first presented in 2012, we've recognized over 518 public schools of all grade levels throughout California for advancing civic education through our judges in the classroom program. Just last year, we scheduled 230 visits by judges to schools across the state, both in person and remotely.

I participated in this program myself, but I can tell you firsthand that it's a truly rewarding experience for the judges, teachers, and students. Civic learning teaches students about their democracy and develops skills for their future lives, such as critical thinking, problem solving. It teaches them how to be engaged to communicate and collaborate with one another, and to demonstrate creativity, initiative, and innovation. And it promotes academic achievement, helping students remain involved and committed to ongoing learning.

Recently, I announced the next phase of our Power of Democracy Civic Learning initiative. This effort will be led by what I like to call civic learning pioneer and stalwart administrative presiding Justice Judith McConnell of the Fourth District Court of Appeal, together with Judge Julia Olajimento, who has also been very active in this area with Santa Clara Superior Court. The vision of this initiative is to expand civic learning about our three branches of government.

But I confess with the focus on the judicial branch in every district, in every school, and for every child in California, we want all kids sitting in the classrooms today to be actively engaged in our democracy. Through these programs. I believe that not only will it enhance the confidence in the judiciary, but in our government as a whole. The next priority I want to update you on is our ongoing work to increase access to justice, and that includes increasing access through the use of technology.

In response to the judicial branch's concerns about fines and fees creating a debtor's prison for Low income Californians who are struggling with debt from traffic and other infraction violations, we launched an ability to pay pilot project known as my citations. This was in April 2019 with five superior courts partnering with the Judicial Council. The online tool offers Low income drivers an easy way to request a lower penalty, a payment plan or community service.

An initial grant from the US Department of Justice was enhanced by all of you to Fund this. My citations also enables Californians to interact with the court in a more efficient way. We have a new module that allows litigants to contest eligible traffic citations by submitting a written statement and uploading their evidence online, saving them trips to the court. And new languages have also been added to English and Spanish, including Chinese and Vietnamese.

So far, through the end of 2023, more than 128,000 ability to pay requests have been submitted by over 91,000 Californians, with outstanding fines and fees being reduced by more than half, from 71 million to 34.3 million. I think it's important to keep in mind the demographics of the people that we're helping with these programs. Nearly 47% of court users accessing the tool reported that they received public benefits, and over 89% reported incomes at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.

And the results of the pilot program are promising. They demonstrated that cases that were granted a reduction through this tool had a 61% success rate for full repayment. I'm pleased to say the 43 courts who have deployed the program so far will soon be joined by the 15 remaining courts to achieve full deployment this year. Thank you. Thank you. The third priority I want to report on is increasing transparency, improving efficiencies as was mentioned, and increasing productivity without sacrificing quality.

Case flow management is an important process in meeting these objectives and providing timely access to justice for the California Supreme Court. We've instituted internal targets for our court to meet. Our annual number of opinions has trended up, and we're also working our way through some important landmark new laws, such as the Racial Justice act, which is impacting our workflow. The courts of Appeal statewide have implemented a monitoring system to manage appellate caseload inequities and ensure that they too are promptly resolving cases.

Case flow management and time to disposition is also an important tool for our trial courts. Data management and analytics help them to manage caseloads, provide interpreter coverage and make jury duty more efficient, something my husband reminded me of that's important when he served recently. It also informs how they can work best with our justice system partners, from the clerk's window to final dispositions and everywhere in between. Case flow management is critical for the public we serve.

With the resources that you provide, and please keep providing them, the resources you provide are, of course, crucial. I would next like to touch upon our priority with respect to advocating for a stable budget that the judicial branch can count on to make public access to justice a reality for all 58 counties for this budget year. I'm grateful for Governor Newsom's continued support of our mission to advance access to justice and for protecting essential funding for critical programs and services. Thank you. Thank you.

And yes, we know during these challenging budget times that along with the rest of state government, the judicial branch must be part of solution, part of the solution to close the statewide budget deficit. We are committed to working with the governor's Administration and with the Legislature in the coming months as plans for the Budget act are finalized. This goal is directly reflected in what we call the strategic plan for California's judicial branch. For me, planning is an important discipline.

I think anyone who knows me knows that I like structure and I like rules. The strategic plan provides this for the judicial branch. It's a foundational document for us. Since the first strategic plan was developed in 1992, the process has served to articulate our mission and direction, set our governance structures and priorities, and helped us to navigate some of the most significant reforms, improvements, and challenges in the history of California's court system.

At periodic intervals, we've updated our long term goals as California and the needs of its residents have evolved. Most recently, in December 2022, the Judicial Council amended our number one strategic goal of access, fairness and diversity to add inclusion. Although this may seem like a small change, as one of our council Members shared at the time, as important as diversity is, if you're not included, it doesn't matter.

So we saw this as an opportunity to speak out louder and make more explicit the branch's commitment to an inclusive court system in which all individuals are and feel respected and engaged, and their contributions are valued. And this first goal guides all facets of the Judicial Council's review, analysis and deliberations. We have one new Member of the Judicial Council. I'm very pleased to be joined here today during women's history month by the council's new Administrative Director, Shelly Curran.

Shelly is the first woman to hold this permanent leadership role at the council and the first openly LGBTQ plus person to hold this statewide office. Shelley joined the council from the Legislature, where she was principal consultant to two California Senate presidents pro tem. Addressing the council following its vote to confirm her appointment, Shelley shared her philosophy about public service and working in government. I'm sure it will resonate strongly with you, just as it did with me.

She shared that she subscribes to the World War II meaning of the phrase good enough for government work, when that meant, as she describes it, the best, the highest standards, the benchmark for which to strive. Those same principles guide us in implementing the Judicial Council's other strategic goals for the branch. One goal has particular salience these days, and that is modernization of management and Administration.

With respect to this goal, some modernization is voluntary, some is disruptive and thrust upon us, and you can guess where AI falls in that spectrum. Either way, change is the inevitable result. I don't recommend that anyone shout into their phones, win my case or write my brief. But society, government, and therefore our court system must address the many issues and questions presented by the developing field of artificial intelligence. We must do this in a careful and deliberative fashion.

I have asked administrative Presiding Justice Mary Greenwood and Judge Arthur Castro to help lead the branch's efforts to identify the foundational questions that must be asked as we consider the opportunities and challenges that are associated with AI. Their efforts will facilitate how we consider what might be appropriate uses of AI in relation to the judiciary. With the guiding principle of safeguarding the integrity of the judicial process. Another issue of focus and serious concern to us all is climate change and its associated impacts.

The judicial branch's early education focus on law and process related to the California Environmental Quality act, but it's now expanded to include environmental science and the related and often highly complex litigation issues that judges are increasingly being asked to address. With the support of the Legislature, we're embarking on a more comprehensive water and environmental law education focus. The judicial branch is playing its part and supporting action and solutions for our state in these important areas and through other modernization and service initiatives.

No discussion of modernization is complete without a discussion. As you know of remote technology, you knew it was coming, right? Court users themselves are choosing to access these new services and tools, including 24/7 e filing, access to online records and research, self help resources, and, of course, remote appearances. I want you to all know accessing court services remotely works. We know this from court users and staff alike.

A recent judicial counsel report on this issue showed us that there were about 150,000 remote civil proceedings conducted statewide in one month. Each month, more than 90% of the court users and 98% of court staff reported positive experiences and very few technical issues reported. As always, more work remains to be done, but we can build on these successes. Addressing remote access is one example of effective three branch solutions to better serve the state.

Implementation of the Care act, of course, is another example of the three branch solution model working successfully. To date, we have eight courts who have implemented the new care court program to help deliver mental health treatment and support services to the most vulnerable Californians. The remaining 50 counties will implement care courts by December 1 of this year.

Since the program was launched in October 2023, we are already seeing significant promise in assisting people with mental health issues, whether these cases are filed by concerned family Members or directly by those who need the services. With help from a public defender, we look forward to continuing our commitment to this important program and the people it serves who so desperately need assistance.

Another pressing issue that deserves our attention is the ability to serve litigants by being able to provide them with a verbatim record of their trial court proceedings. Right now, that is not happening in too many cases. In just a three month period between July 1 and September 30 of last year, nearly 40% of family, probate and unlimited civil hearings in California had no verbatim record. That's 133,000 hearings in just three months.

We all want and need more licensed court reporters to be trained, certified, and hired, and the judicial counsel and the courts are doing all that we feasibly can to support that goal, including signing bonuses. We have retention bonuses, longevity bonuses, increased salary ranges, finders fees, and student loan or tuition reimbursement incentives. But the number of certified court reporters continues to decline, and it threatens access to justice, especially for vulnerable Californians.

As our court explained in 2018 in an opinion that we issued, the absence of a verbatim record of trial court proceedings will often have a devastating effect on a litigant's ability to have an appeal decided on the merits. These devastating effects are already being felt by far too many court users. I look forward to working with you all to find practical solutions to this ongoing issue.

The final strategic goal for the judicial branch that I want to raise with you is the goal of Independence and accountability. This goal encompasses quite a bit. It encompasses the Independence of the judiciary as a separate and coequal branch of government and the Independence of Judicial decision making in order to preserve the rule of law and ensure the fair, impartial, and efficient delivery of justice. It also involves maintaining the highest standards of accountability for the use of public resources and adherence to statutory and constitutional mandates.

There is a necessary balance between impartiality, transparency, and accountability. We embrace our obligations to describe our rulings, but what concerns me are unnecessary and unproductive partisan attacks on court decisions. I'm concerned that these trends and a decline in civil discourse can negatively impact the public's trust and confidence in our democratic institutions. We must safeguard the integrity of the courts and our decision making. Our judiciary is nonpartisan and adheres to the rule of law. We do not make public policy.

We embrace the robust ethics standards that we have in place with supportive training and guidance. We also have misconduct oversight from an independent state agency. We believe in the value of precedent, and I believe that how courts interpret the law and adjudicate cases shouldn't change dramatically when the Members of a court changed.

And I will say again, as I did last year, that I'm privileged to serve on one of the most talented and diverse high courts in the nation, a collegial bench with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences. There have been a number of studies on our Supreme Court over this past year. One reported that we had the highest unanimity rate in the court's recent history at 94%.

I don't know if you should applaud, but I will say that's not because we don't value dissent or share one another's opinions. My colleagues are not shy. I think that statistic may change at some point, but what remains constant is our respect for the rule of law, precedent, and legislative intent. We respect one another's points of view and the process of deliberating and crafting an opinion. And we respect one another.

The California Supreme Court has a long history of setting precedents in areas relating to consumer protection, criminal justice, civil liberties, and racial integration. The importance of our work is not always limited to our cases alone. In 2020, during a turbulent summer for our nation, my colleagues on the court issued a statement on equality and inclusion that still resonates today. I'd like to share some of that with you, they wrote.

Each of us has a duty to recognize there is much unfinished and essential work that must be done to make equality and inclusion an everyday reality for all. We state clearly and without equivocation that we condemn racism in all its forms, conscious, unconscious, institutional, structural, historic, and continuing. Each Member of this court, along with the court as a whole, embraces this obligation.

As Members of the legal profession sworn to uphold our fundamental constitutional values, we will not and must not rest until the promise of equal justice under the law is for all our people, a living truth. I can tell you that those same sentiments are shared by judicial officers throughout the state.

I think you can see why I'm proud to serve on this court and with my judicial branch colleagues, all 2000 of them, and 18,000 court professionals, the judicial counsel and the professional staff of the council, and our justice system partners. And I look forward to working with each of you on future initiatives and the promise of equal justice under the law for all Californians. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Justice Guerrero. Without objection, the State of the Judiciary Address shall be printed in the journal as a separate appendix. The chief and the associate justices of the Supreme Court may now exit the rear of the chamber. As the justices depart the chamber, I have a brief announcement.

The court would like to invite Members and invited guests for a reception with the Chief Justice across the street at the Stanley Mosque Library and Courts building immediately following adjournment today, we will now adjourn the joint convention Sinadai Members, we are back in regular session. Members, we're back in regular session. Session schedule is as follows. Wednesday, March 20 Check in session Thursday, March 20 floor session at 09:00 a.m. All other items remaining will be passed and retained. All motions shall be continued.

Seeing in hearing no further business, I'm ready to adjourn a motion to adjourn. Ms. Aguiar Curry moves. Mr. Gallagher seconds that this house stands adjourned until Thursday, March 21, at 09:00 a.m. The quorum call is lifted and the house is adjourned.