The scenario: Congratulations! You have just been hired as a consultant by Governor Gavin Newsom to provide an independent, non-partisan, and non-ideological analysis of whether California should consider changing its system for staffing its trial and appellate judgeships. NOTE: Governor Newsom has already hired campaign staff to consider the political aspects of judicial staffing proposals, but he is hiring you based on your established professional reputation for cutting through partisan rhetoric and positioning to provide fair, independent recommendations.
Your analysis is to be provided in the form of a professional memo of approximately 5 at least 3 pages (single-spaced, with double spaces between paragraphs). You need to construct your memo to follow the guidelines and sample I’ve provided (see below). Your analysis should consider the following points:
• provide a BRIEF overview of how California currently staffs its judicial seats;
• explain at least two alternative mechanisms that are currently being used or have been proposed somewhere in the U.S. to fill judgeships;
• explain the pros/cons of California’s system compared to these alternatives;
• provide a recommendation about what you see as the “best” system of judicial selection currently available, providing a strong rationale for your recommendation.