Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today released annual applicant and appointee data for the administration’s judicial appointments.

From 2011 through 2014, there were 1,574 applicants for judicial appointments and Governor Brown appointed 237 judges, including 76 in 2014. Approximately 46% of Governor Brown’s appointees in 2014 identified their ethnicity as American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African-American; Hispanic; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander; or other/unknown.

Governor Brown also nominated two new Justices to the California Supreme Court in 2014: Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar in July and Justice Leondra R. Kruger in November. Both Justices were sworn in by Governor Brown earlier this year.

From 2011 through 2014, Governor Brown’s judicial appointees included a number of notable firsts:

• Therese M. Stewart, the first openly lesbian justice to serve on the California Court of Appeal; and

• Ferdinand P. Inumerable, the first Asian-American judge ever appointed to the Ventura County Superior Court.

• Paul Lo, the first Hmong American judge ever appointed in the country;

• Sunshine Sykes, the first Native American judge ever appointed to the Riverside County Superior Court;

• Sunil Kulkarni, the first South Asian American judge ever appointed in Northern California;

• Rupa Goswami, the first South Asian American woman judge ever appointed in California.

• Halim Dhanidina, the first American-Muslim judge ever appointed in California;

• Jim Humes, the first openly gay justice ever appointed to the California Court of Appeal;

• Miguel Marquez, the first Latino justice ever appointed to the Sixth District Court of Appeal;

• Rosendo Peña, the first Latino justice ever appointed to the Fifth District Court of Appeal;

• Chris Doehle, the first female judge ever appointed to the Del Norte County Superior Court;

• Kimberly Colwell, the first openly lesbian judge ever appointed to the Alameda County Superior Court; 

• Mark Andrew Talamantes, the first Latino judge ever appointed to the Marin County Superior Court;

• Kathleen O’Leary, the first female presiding justice ever appointed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Three; and

• Raquel Marquez, the first Latina judge ever appointed to the Riverside County Superior Court.

Under SB 56 and SB 182, the Governor is required to disclose aggregate statewide demographic data provided by all judicial applicants by March 1.

**NOTE: Judge and Justice demographic data collected by the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts. State Bar membership data collected by the California State Bar.