No, not that Supreme Court. I’m talking about the California Supreme Court, which will have a vacancy as of June 30, 2005, when Justice Janice Rogers Brown will leave the Court for the D.C. Circuit.

So how does one get confirmed to the California Supreme Court? Good question!

A potential Justice is first nominated by the Governor. Currently among those being vetted, a Clam source placed in the Arnold Administration informs me, is former Congressman Jim Rogan, whose nomination I would fully support.

Following nomination, the candidate goes to the Commission on Judicial Appointments, a three member body composed of Chief Justice Ronald George, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and the senior presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal (whose identity I’m not sure of, but am in the process of confirming). The Commission is to hold at least one public hearing on the fitness of the nominee, and holds a veto power. If it approves, the nominee takes the bench.

This presents an interesting opportunity for students of politics- Lockyer has his eye on a race for the Governor’s mansion (well, not really, since that place is a moldy shack that no governor has lived in for decades). Additionally, due to the electoral ouster of Rose Bird and her fellow socialists during the Deukmejian administration, the California Supreme Court is currently the most conservative branch of the state government, and several degrees more conservative than the U.S. Supreme Court.

The question then, is whether Lockyer will decide to use the Commission as a political soapbox and attempt to be as obstructionist as his party members are in D.C., all while risking turning the relatively politically neutral California judicial appointments process into the political circus that the federal judiciary has become.

Time will tell.