Governor Gavin Newsom has nominated Justice Therese Stewart to be the first lesbian presiding justice on a California appellate court. If confirmed, she would be the second out justice to preside over a division of one of the state's six appellate courts.
The first to do so was gay Justice James M. Humes of San Francisco. Former governor Jerry Brown, who had named Humes to the state's appellate bench in 2012, elevated him two years later to be the presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal, Division One.
Newsom on Friday announced Stewart's elevation to be presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal, Division Two. The UC Berkeley School of Law graduate is set to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of presiding justice J. Anthony Kline.
As the senior presiding justice on the 1st District Court of Appeal, Humes will vote on confirming Stewart as a member of the Commission on Judicial Appointments. Joining him on the review panel will be outgoing California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Stewart, 65, a registered Democrat, is set to earn $262,198 in her new position. Her confirmation hearing date has yet to be announced.
The news comes nearly two months after Newsom tapped queer Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kelli Evans to the state's Supreme Court. If confirmed, she will be the first out LGBTQ woman and second out African American to serve on it.
The Commission on Judicial Appointments will hold Evan's confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday, November 10. Joining Cantil-Sakauye and Bonta on the review body that morning will be senior Presiding Justice Manuel A. Ramirez of the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division Two.
Stewart, from San Francisco like her colleague Humes, had defended Newsom when he served as mayor of the city and she was a deputy city attorney. Most famously, Stewart was part of the legal team that defended Newsom in state court after he ordered city officials to marry same-sex couples against California law in the winter of 2004 shortly after he became mayor.
She went on to successfully argue for the right of same-sex couples to wed before the California Supreme Court, which overturned the state's anti-gay marriage statutes in 2008. The court's ruling led to the ballot fight over the issue and eventual voter passage that November of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in the Golden State.
She lost a second case before the state high court seeking to overturn Prop 8 but did successfully argue it should not annul the some 18,000 marriages that had taken place prior to Election Day. After two same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit against the homophobic proposition, the city attorney's office joined the case as an intervener and Stewart was part of the team that worked on it.
In June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case on a technicality, allowing lower court rulings striking down Prop 8 to stand. The resumption of same-sex nuptials began shortly thereafter in California.
In 2014, Brown nominated Stewart as an associate justice of the appeal court's Division Two. She became the first out female appellate court justice in the state and the second LGBTQ appeals court jurist after Humes.
There are now five LGBTQ appeals court justices in the state. Gay Associate Justice Luis A. Lavin serves in the 2nd District, while lesbian Associate Justices Laurie M. Earl and Marsha G. Slough serve in the 3rd District and 4th District, respectively. Newsom appointed Earl to the appellate bench last year, while Brown had named Lavin and Slough as appellate justices.
Both confirmation hearings for Evans and Stewart will be webcast live on the website for the state courts.
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