BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 182
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB 182 (Corbett)
As Amended August 22, 2011
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE : 23-14
JUDICIARY 7-3 APPROPRIATIONS 11-5
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Atkins, Dickinson, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, |
| |Huber, Huffman, Monning, | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Wieckowski | |Calderon, Campos, Gatto, |
| | | |Hall, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Solorio |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Wagner, Beth Gaines, |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly, |
| |Jones | |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Seeks to add demographic data on gender identification
and sexual orientation to the list of information collected
annually on judicial nominees, applicants, appointees, judges
and justices. Specifically, this bill :
1)Adds gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of
self-reported demographic data required to be collected and
released by the governor, the Judicial Nominations of the
State Bar (JNE) Commission, and the Administrative Office of
the Courts (AOC). As under existing law, providing the
specified information would be strictly voluntary, and any
release of the data must be in the form of aggregated
statistical data and cannot identify any individual applicant,
appointee, justice, or judge.
2)Specifies that in the year following a general or recall
election in which a new governor will take office prior to
March 1, the departing governor must provide to the incoming
governor all of the demographic data collected for the
previous year. This bill would require that the incoming
governor then becomes responsible for releasing that provided
data as well as any demographic data collected by the incoming
governor, if any, prior to March 1.
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3)Contains double-jointing language with AB 126 (Davis).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that in the event of a vacancy in a judicial office
to be filled by appointment of the governor, or when the
governor is required under the Constitution to nominate a
candidate, the governor must first submit the names of all
potential appointees or nominees to a designated agency of the
State Bar (the JNE Commission) for evaluation of their
judicial qualifications.
2)Requires that on or after March 1 every year the governor
shall collect and release the following information on an
aggregated statistical basis:
a) Demographic data provided by all judicial applicants
(including those who have and have not been submitted to
the JNE Commission) relative to ethnicity, race, and
gender; and,
b) Demographic data relative to ethnicity, race, and
gender, as provided by all judicial appointees or nominees.
3)Requires that on or after March 1 every year the JNE
Commission shall collect and release the following information
on an aggregated statistical basis:
a) Statewide demographic data provided by all judicial
applicants reviewed regarding ethnicity, race, and gender,
and areas of legal practice and employment; and,
b) A statewide summary of recommendations by ethnicity,
race, and gender and areas of legal practice and
employment.
4)Requires that on or after March 1 every year the AOC shall
collect and release demographic data provided by justices and
judges relative to ethnicity, race, and gender by specific
jurisdiction.
5)Provides that the demographic data collected from judicial
applicants, nominees, and appointees shall be disclosed only
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on an aggregated statistical basis and shall not identify any
individual applicant, justice, or judge.
6)Specifies that all communications with the governor or his or
her authorized agents or employees to the State Bar in
furtherance of the purposes of the law relating to judicial
offices are "absolutely privileged from disclosure and
confidential."
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the AOC will incur General Fund costs of about
$100,000 in 2011-12 to collect the additional information from
1,700 justices and judges and to compile and release this
information. Ongoing costs to seek the data from new judges and
from those judges who have not previously responded would be
about $30,000 annually. Costs for the Governor's office would
be minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS : This bill would add gender identity and sexual
orientation to the list of demographic data annually collected
on California's judiciary. The author writes:
This bill addresses a deficiency in current law by
including sexual orientation, gender identity, and
gender expression as a part of the collection of the
demographics collected. In the same vein as
then-Speaker Nunez's concern Ýfor] a lack of diversity
on the courts with regard to gender and ethnicity, the
collection of this self-reported information will help
identify diversity of sexual orientation or gender
identity and gender expression, or lack thereof.
The California Judiciary suffers from a substantial
lack of diversity. In 2009 women represented just 34
percent of applicants and only 28 percent of the total
number of judges appointed by the Governor. The
Administrative Office of the Courts reported that as
of December 2009 the judiciary was composed of 5%
Asian and Pacific Islanders, 5.4% Black/African
Americans, 7.5% Latinos, 73.6% Whites, 3.7% of more
than one race, while 3.7% persons did not disclose
their race/ethnicity.
Because these reports do not consider gender identity,
gender expression, or sexual orientation there is
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currently no way of knowing how the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender community is being
represented in the judiciary. While LGBT people
represent a sizable and important part of the state,
their representation in the judicial branch of
government is virtually unknown.
Present law provides for the voluntary disclosure of demographic
data regarding ethnicity, race and gender from all judicial
applicants, appointees, nominees, justices and judges. Any
applicant, appointee, nominee, judge or justice who wishes to
opt out of this disclosure is permitted to do so. The
"Application for Appointment as Judge of the Superior Court"
asks an applicant to choose from numerous ethnic backgrounds in
order to build a picture of the backgrounds of judicial
applicants. This bill would create similar questions
paralleling the existing demographic question focused on
applicants, judges, appointees, nominees and justice's gender
identity and sexual orientation. California possesses a sizable
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population and
the bill's supporters hope that this information will shed more
light on the sexual orientation of the state's judiciary,
especially as it compares to the demographic make-up of the
state as a whole.
Given the sensitive and personal nature of one's gender identity
and sexual orientation, some judges and nominees understandably
may be uncomfortable disclosing their sexual identities. To
alleviate this concern, all demographic information in this area
of the law is released on an aggregate basis with no information
identifying any individual judge, justice, applicant, nominee or
appointee. Furthermore, the entire survey is voluntary and any
judge, justice, applicant, appointee or nominee can refuse to
respond to any of the survey's questions they feel uncomfortable
answering. The results of the survey are for demographic
understanding only.
Analysis Prepared by : Drew Liebert and Nick Liedtke / JUD. /
(916) 319-2334
FN: 0002032
SB 182
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