California's largest law enforcement union is calling on voters to remove a state Supreme Court justice in an unusual last-minute campaign, according to a CalMatters investigation published in October 2026. The Peace Officers Research Association of California is targeting Justice Kelli Evans, whom it accuses of seeking to reopen criminal cases that should remain closed. The union's messaging mirrors the only time in state history that voters actually removed California Supreme Court justices in a retention election—a 1986 sweep that ousted three judges over death penalty rulings.
PORAC leaders openly acknowledge their campaign likely won't gather enough votes to reject Evans, who joined the court in 2022 after Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her and now faces a retention election for a 12-year term. Instead, the union wants to send a signal to the judicial branch that it's monitoring how judges apply recent laws that generally expand opportunities for incarcerated people to seek parole and release. "This is a warning shot that, hey, we're paying attention," union vice president Ben Therriault told CalMatters. The PORAC website cites data from the At the Lectern blog showing that Evans and Justice Goodwin Liu dissented dozens of times when their colleagues declined to review criminal cases.
Legal scholars view the effort as a danger to judicial independence and the neutrality of judges, according to the report. "To me it sets a dangerous precedent and it is not something that I would hope to see expanding," said Mary-Beth Moylan, an associate dean at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law, said the PORAC campaign "hasn't gotten traction and it certainly hasn't gotten attention. There's no reason to believe it's going to have any effect." Evans herself declined to comment on the ads.
The 1986 retention election that swept out three justices—Chief Justice Rose Bird and Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin—came after the court angered the state's business community with rulings against employers, prompting businesses to fund a campaign against them. Republican Gov. George Deukmejian also campaigned against the justices, calling out their "lack of impartiality and objectivity" in death penalty cases. All three had been appointed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who opposed the death penalty philosophically but didn't take official action to overturn it. PORAC doesn't have anywhere near that level of political firepower in its digital messaging against Evans, the report notes.
Criminal justice issues are coming before the Supreme Court frequently in part because of laws passed under Brown and Newsom that give incarcerated people more chances to seek parole and release, CalMatters reports. The Racial Justice Act also allows people to challenge their convictions or sentences if they can demonstrate that racial bias affected proceedings against them. The police union contends incarcerated people are "rolling the dice" with appeals to see if they can win release under the recent legal changes, and it argues the laws are out of step with voters, who two years ago supported tougher criminal penalties for certain theft and drug offenses when they passed Proposition 36. "From our perspective, there are several (justices) growing out of touch with where people are at in public safety," Therriault said. Unlike federal judges, California judges don't receive lifetime appointments—the state constitution requires Supreme Court and appeals court appointees to stand for retention elections, though they generally don't participate in political campaigns, and many voters typically skip judicial questions on their ballots because they aren't familiar with the judges.