BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1005
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1005 (Alejo)
As Amended May 14, 2013
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|Wieckowski, Wagner, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Alejo, Chau, Dickinson, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Garcia, Gorell, | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| |Maienschein, Muratsuchi, | |Gomez, Hall, Ammiano, |
| |Stone | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Wagner, Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Seeks to expand the demographic data collected and
released, on an aggregate basis, to include
voluntarily-provided, non-retroactive demographic data relative
to disability and veteran status of judicial nominees,
appointees, and judges of the State Bar (JNE Commission),
Governor's Office and the Administrative Office of the Courts
(AOC). Specifically, this bill expands the demographic data
collected and released, on an aggregate statewide basis,
beginning 2015 to include voluntarily-provided demographic data
relative to disability, as defined by state law, and veteran
status, as defined by federal law, of judicial nominees of the
Governor's Office, the JNE Commission, and the AOC.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that the Legislature shall prescribe the manner of
judges and shall provide for the officers and employees of
each superior court.
2)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 California 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 (JNE Commission) for evaluation of their
judicial qualifications.
AB 1005
Page 2
3)Requires, on or before March 1 of each year for the prior
calendar year, the Governor to collect and release, on an
aggregate statewide basis, all of the following:
a) Demographic data relative to ethnicity, race, gender,
gender identity, and sexual orientation as provided by all
judicial applicants, both as to those judicial applicants
who have been and those who have not been submitted to the
State Bar for evaluation.
b) Demographic data relative to ethnicity, race, gender,
gender identity, and sexual orientation of all judicial
appointments or nominations as provided by the judicial
appointee or nominee.
4)Requires, on or before March 1 of each year for the prior
calendar year, the designated agency of the State Bar
responsible for evaluation of judicial candidates to collect
and release, on an aggregate statewide basis, all of the
following:
a) Statewide demographic data provided by all judicial
applicants reviewed relative to ethnicity, race, gender,
gender identity, sexual orientation, and areas of legal
practice and employment.
b) The statewide summary of the recommendations of the
designated agency of the State Bar by ethnicity, race,
gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and areas of
legal practice and employment.
5)Requires, on or before March 1 of each year for the prior
calendar year, the AOC to collect and release the demographic
data provided by justices and judges described in Article VI
of the California Constitution relative to ethnicity, race,
gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation by specific
jurisdiction.
6)Provides that any demographic data collected from judicial
applicants, nominees and appointees shall disclose only
aggregated statistical data and shall not identify any
individual applicant, justice, or judge.
7)Provides that all communications, written, verbal or
AB 1005
Page 3
otherwise, of and to the Governor, the Governor's authorized
agents or employees, including, but not limited to, the
Governor's Legal Affairs Secretary and Appointments Secretary,
or of and to the State Bar are absolutely privileged from
disclosure and confidential.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, based on similar legislation from 2011, the AOC will
incur General Fund costs of about $100,000 in 2013-14 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 seeks to help remedy the historic lack of
appropriate diversity in the judicial branch by expanding the
demographic data collected and released to the public to include
voluntarily-provided, non-retroactive demographic data relative
to the disability and veteran status of judicial nominees,
appointees, and judges of the JNE, Governor's Office, and the
AOC. Currently, demographic data relative to ethnicity, race,
gender, gender identity and sexual orientation are required to
be collected and released by the State Bar, the Governor's
Office, and the AOC. Supporters of this bill believe that the
judiciary should much more closely reflect the diverse
population of California, which includes California veterans and
those with disabilities.
In support of the measure, the author writes:
Having professionals with diverse backgrounds on the
bench improves Californians' access to justice.
California can certainly do a better job to ensure
that our judicial bench is more reflective of our
state's population. AB 1005 is a step to move in that
direction. Members of the judicial selection advisory
committees are encouraged to recommend candidates that
reflect the demographics of California. Without the
collection of data regarding veterans and persons with
disabilities, it will remain difficult to truly assess
the diversity of our judiciary.
Under existing law, the Governor, the designated agency of the
State Bar (the JNE Commission) responsible for the evaluation of
AB 1005
Page 4
judicial candidates, and the AOC are required to annually
collect demographic data relating to judicial applicants,
appointees and nominees, candidates and justices and judges
relative to ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity and sexual
orientation. This bill would simply expand these provisions to
require the collection and release of voluntarily-provided
demographic data relative to disability and veteran status.
In recent years, there has been increased attention by the
Legislature and recent governors on the continuing need to
develop new efforts to address the continuing lack of sufficient
diversity in the state's judiciary. For example, when
considering the merits of prior legislation seeking to authorize
50 new judgeships, former Speaker Fabian Núñez insisted that
before more judgeships would be authorized, new mechanisms would
need to be adopted to help address the lack of ethnic and gender
diversity within the judicial branch. As part of these efforts,
unprecedented new diversity reporting requirements were imposed
to begin the challenging process of addressing this problem.
Only last year, the Legislature passed, and the Governor signed
SB 182 (Corbett), Chapter 720, Statutes of 2012, which expanded
the diversity reporting requirements to require the collection
and release of demographic data relative to gender identity and
sexual orientation for judicial applicants, appointees, and
sitting judges.
The State Bar, the Governor's Office, and the AOC are all
required to prepare and issue reports on the diversity of the
judicial applicant pool and of the existing judiciary. Reports
by these three entities over the past several years demonstrate
that some progress has been made in addressing the lack of
diversity in the judiciary-but much more work remains to be
done. Recently, the California State Bar, in conjunction with
the California Judicial Council, recommended that the
"Governor's Office should appreciate and recognize the
contributions of lawyers with disabilities and endeavor to
include more of such lawyers among the Governor's appointees.
All agencies reporting annual demographic data should set a
timetable for implementing a process that allows for the
collection of information on applicants, appointees, and sitting
judges who choose to disclose that they have a disability."
(Continuing a Legacy of Excellence: A Summit on Achieving
Diversity in the Judiciary, 2011 Judicial Diversity Summit Final
Report and Recommendations, August 1, 2012, available at:
AB 1005
Page 5
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/jc-20121026-item1.pdf.)
Supporters of this bill point out that according to the United
States Census Bureau approximately 5.9 million Californians have
disabilities, and the California Department of Veterans Affairs
reports that just over 1.8 million Californians are veterans.
In spite of these significant numbers, data on veterans and
persons with disabilities is not yet provided in the process of
judicial appointments. This bill seeks to improve the record of
judicial appointees with disabilities and veteran status to
better reflect their numbers in and contribution to California.
Analysis Prepared by : Drew Liebert / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0000553