California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin. Photo: Jason Doiy / ALM

As Gov. Gavin Newsom gears up to make an appointment to the California Supreme Court, one person won't be offering him any guidance: Justice Ming Chin.

Chin, the 24-year associate justice who announced his retirement Wednesday, said in an interview that he has no advice for Newsom or the governor's judicial appointments secretary, Martin Jenkins, on what qualities to look for in his successor.

"I have absolute confidence in the governor and Marty Jenkins," Chin said. "They are more than capable."

Chin, 77, may be one of the few people not sharing his thoughts with the governor's office. With his first nomination to the high court, Newsom has the opportunity to bolster a left-of-center majority while breaking, if he chooses, Gov. Jerry Brown's streak of selecting jurists from outside of California's appellate courts.

No African American male has served on the court since Associate Justice Allen Broussard retired in 1991. No openly LGBT judge has ever been nominated. And Latino groups are eager to see the court reflect a state where Latino residents outnumber whites.

"The Latino Caucus has repeatedly communicated to the governor's office about the need for more diversity in judicial appointments," Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, chair of the legislative Latino Caucus, said in an email. "We are hopeful Governor Newsom will explore diverse candidates, including a possible Latino or Latina, to fill this new vacancy."

Newsom's clues

Newsom issued a statement Wednesday afternoon praising Chin for his "distinguished service."

"As one of the first Asian Americans to take a seat on the highest court in our state, Justice Chin broke barriers," Newsom said. "Serving with distinction on one of the most diverse state supreme courts in the country, Justice Chin has made a lifetime of critical contributions to the legal system."

The governor's press aides did not respond to questions about how the process to replace the justice might work.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Newsom's appointment record to date offers few clues on whom he might choose. The governor, the son of the late state Appellate Justice William Newsom, has only made a handful of appointments to the trial courts and one to an appellate court in his first year in office. He said in May that his administration will look for "diverse" judicial candidates from different racial, ethnic, gender and career backgrounds.

"It's really hard to say" where Newsom may look for a Supreme Court justice, said Horvitz & Levy partner David Ettinger. "Newsom's dad was a court of appeal justice. He definitely had a long background with, and sensitivity to, appellate court work. He could be looking to" two justices on the First District Court of Appeal, Jim Humes and Therese Stewart, Ettinger said.

Another possible contender is Jenkins, a former federal judge and justice on the state's First District.

Whoever the candidates might be, Chin has given the governor plenty of time to ponder. He won't leave until Aug. 31, the end of the current court term.

Chin said his work as a judge "has been the privilege of a lifetime" and that he still relishes his job but wanted "to make sure there was plenty of sand left in the hourglass" post-career.

The son of Chinese immigrants who farmed potatoes in Oregon, Chin got his first taste of the law as a boy when he boarded with a judge's family while attending school.

"The judge gave me law books to read," Chin said in an interview last year with Charles Jung of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. "He took me down to court. I got to watch jury trials. He handed me the gun in a murder case … It was amazing to me that people would come into a courtroom to settle their differences rather than gunfights on the streets or brawls that families got involved in. That was what really attracted me to the law."

"Certainly Not a Knee-jerk Vote"

Colleagues recognized Chin for his warmth and collegiality and even noted that he started the practice of quietly distributing small snacks on the bench during oral arguments.

"We've got to take care of our health," he said jokingly.

Chin served as a captain in the Vietnam War and earned the Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal. He worked in employment litigation and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office before joining the Alameda County bench and later the First District Court of Appeal, where his service overlapped with Newsom's father.

"I think the conventional thought would be that he was a bit more conservative than the other justices on the current court," Ettinger said. "I also think it's important not to pigeonhole him that way."

While Chin has a reputation of favoring prosecutors, he also wrote the unanimous opinion last month in People v. Arredondo, which held that a sex-crime suspect's Sixth Amendment rights were violated when one of his alleged victims was allowed to testify from behind a computer monitor, blocking the defendant's view.

And while he often agreed with arguments favoring federal preemption of state arbitration laws, he also authored an April 2019 opinion allowing San Francisco Giants security guards to litigate their pay dispute without having to go to arbitration.

"He was certainly not a knee-jerk vote," Ettinger said.

Chin, an international speaker on forensic evidence and the law, said he will continue to work on a practice book about scientific evidence. He is also putting together an educational program on genome editing.

Once an avid runner, Chin said he's more of a "power walker" now. He's taken up golf and hits the links with his son, Jason Chin, who he recently swore in as a judge on the Alameda County Superior Court bench—in the same courtroom where he once served.