The Daily Journal interviewed Manatt’s Ben Shatz, co-chair of the firm’s appellate practice, for an article reviewing the past year in the California Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court decided major cases involving tort liability, labor and employment disputes, death penalty reversals and constitutional challenges to criminal convictions this year, and the justices usually voted together as a bloc.
“It is not as strongly politically or ideologically motivated as the U.S. Supreme Court, and that’s a good thing,” said Shatz. “It’s better to have independent thinkers and justices who are not necessarily predictable.”
“You can’t just say Liu and Cuellar and Kruger are going to vote together because they were all Brown appointees and they’re all around the same age,” Shatz added. “It doesn’t work that way, and it shouldn’t work that way.”