California Courts of Appeal - History

History

The California Constitution originally made the Supreme Court the only appellate court for the whole state. As the state's population skyrocketed during the 19th century, the Supreme Court was expanded from three to seven justices, and then the Court began hearing the majority of appeals in three-justice panels. The Court became so overloaded that it frequently issued summary dispositions in minor cases, meaning that it was merely saying "affirmed" or "reversed" without saying why. The state's second Constitution, enacted in 1879, halted that practice by expressly requiring the Court to issue every dispositive decision in writing "with reasons stated." In 1889, the Legislature authorized the Supreme Court to appoint five commissioners to help with its work.

Despite implementing all these measures, the Supreme Court was no longer able to keep up with the state's rapidly growing appellate caseload by the end of the 19th century. Accordingly, in 1903, the Legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to create what were then called the District Courts of Appeal. On November 8, 1904, the electorate adopted the amendment.

The District Courts of Appeal originally consisted of three appellate districts, headquartered in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, with three justices each. These first nine justices were appointed by the Governor. Each district was assigned an ordinal number (i.e., first, second, and third).

In 1966, the word "District" was dropped from the official names of the Courts of Appeal by another constitutional amendment which extensively revised the sections governing the state judiciary. This left Florida as the sole state in the United States with "District Courts of Appeal." Since then, each of the Courts of Appeal has been named officially as "the Court of Appeal of the State of California" for a particular numbered appellate district.