Unlike other CA judges, Supreme Court justices are not elected, they are appointed by the Governor and there is some sort of approval process involving the CA Bar Association. My partner is discussing this with me and arguing that they can't even be recalled, after he read through a document about the history of the CASC on their website. According to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Supreme_Court"The justices are appointed to twelve year terms by the Governor of California...
After justices are appointed, they are subject to a retention vote at the next general election, and thereafter at twelve-year intervals.
The electorate has occasionally exercised the power to not retain justices."
So it seems like the electorate can vote whether or not to retain justices at 12 year intervals, or immediately after they are appointed, but how soon could this happen for the existing justices?
I went to a right-wing website that advocates the recall of CA SC justices if they vote the wrong way on Prop 8, and immediately they state "Because in California Supreme Court Justices are not appointed as they are under the federal constitution, but elected, they are subject to recall by the electorate, and rightly so." This would seem to be a false statement.
Is there someone more knowledgeable about this that can answer this question?