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

Ming Chin, the longest-tenured and one of the most conservative members of the California Supreme Court, has announced he will retire at the end of August, giving Gov. Gavin Newsom his first opportunity to shape the court.

Chin, 77, notified the governor's office of his plans this week and informed his colleagues Wednesday at the court's weekly conference in San Francisco. Chin was not immediately available for comment, but he said in a statement released by the court that he's had "the honor and privilege to serve with three very different but spectacular chief justices" during his nearly 24 years as an associate justice.

"The judicial system has faced some major challenges in my time on the bench, but I believe the branch is now in a strong position," he said. "Justice Chuck Vogel once said my opinions are characterized by clarity and courage. If that is what is written about me in 50 years, I would be happy."

Chin's departure will give Newsom his first nomination to the high court and will likely expand the center-left majority created by former Gov. Jerry Brown's four appointments.

The son of immigrant Oregon potato farmers, Chin became California's first Chinese American Supreme Court justice and a renowned expert on DNA science. He is a prolific writer, having authored more than 350 majority opinions and 100 separate opinions over three decades. He wrote two legal practice guides, one on employment litigation and the other on forensic DNA evidence, and chaired Judicial Council and court committees focused on technology, science and the law and judicial impartiality.

"I have long admired Justice Chin, and his loss to this court will be incalculable," Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement. "He has been a valuable mentor who took me under his wing when I first became chief justice … His signature mix of intelligence, wisdom and practicality will be greatly missed."

Chin was an Alameda County prosecutor and later a partner at the Oakland firm of Aiken, Kramer & Cummings. He was named to the Alameda County Superior Court bench in 1988 and nominated to the First District Court of Appeal two years later. In 1996, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson selected Chin to succeed Armand Arabian as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court.

Viewed as a political moderate, particularly when compared to the conservative Arabian, Chin immediately drew criticism from the right when he told reporters before his confirmation hearing that he personally supported abortion rights. Chin assured the three members of the Commission on Judicial Appointments that his personal views would not influence his rulings. His nomination was confirmed unanimously.

"I've learned something," Chin said after the proceedings, according to an account in the San Francisco Chronicle. With a smile, he added: "I'm not going to say in public what it is."

Generally considered pro-prosecution and pro-business, Chin was the lone dissent in the 2019 case of OTO LLC v. Kho, in which the majority held that a workplace arbitration agreement was procedurally unconscionable.

Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

"Today, the majority holds that an arbitration agreement is substantively unconscionable—and therefore unenforceable—precisely because it prescribes procedures that, according to the majority, have been 'carefully crafted to ensure fairness to both sides,'" Chin wrote. "If you find that conclusion hard to grasp and counterintuitive, so do I."

The employer in the case, OTO LLC, represented by lawyers from Paul, Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, repeatedly cited Chin's dissent in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.

Chin also joined the dissent in In Re Marriage Cases, the 2008 opinion that held that California's constitution guarantees the rights of all residents, including same-sex couples, to marry. Chin and Associate Justice Marvin Baxter called the majority's opinion an "exercise in legal jujitsu" that will "create a constitutional right from whole cloth."

But Chin's judicial record can't always be neatly classified. In 1997, he was part of the Supreme Court majority that struck down a law requiring a teenager to obtain her parent's consent before having an abortion. He also joined the unanimous court in Dynamex, the 2018 ruling overhauling California's worker classification rules.

Chin and his wife of 48 years, Carol, have two children. Jennifer Chin is a senior counsel for the University of California's Office of the President. Jason Chin, like his father before, is an Alameda County Superior Court judge.

 

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