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San Francisco County, California (Judicial)

From Ballotpedia

San Francisco County is located within the First District Court of Appeal.

The people of San Francisco County are served by a Superior Court.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has jurisdiction in San Francisco County. Appeals from the Northern District go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Judges

San Francisco County, California

Superior Court

Superior Court of San Francisco County, California

Judge	Tenure	Appointed By
Ethan P. Schulman	2014 - Present	Jerry Brown
Garrett L. Wong	2005 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Gerardo C. Sandoval
Harry M. Dorfman	2013 - Present	Jerry Brown
Patrick Thompson	March 14, 2022 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Mary E. Wiss
Rochelle C. East	2013 - Present	Jerry Brown
Kathleen A. Kelly	2003 - Present	Gov. Gray Davis (D)
Richard B. Ulmer Jr.	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ross Moody	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Susan M. Breall
Roger Chan	2016 - Present	Jerry Brown
Charles Crompton	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Victor Hwang	2017 - Present	Election
Marisa Chun	2021 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Sharon Reardon	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Teresa Caffese	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Stephen Murphy	2017 - Present	Jerry Brown
Linda Colfax	2011 - Present	Election
Maria Evangelista	January 4, 2021 - Present
Rebecca Wightman	April 18, 2022 - Present
Gail Dekreon	2003 - Present	Election
Joseph Quinn	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Suzanne Ramos Bolanos
Anne-Christine Massullo	2006 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Samuel K. Feng	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Brendan P. Conroy	2013 - Present	Jerry Brown
Charles F. Haines	2001 - Present	Gov. Gray Davis (D)
Daniel A. Flores	2015 - Present	Election
Christine Van Aken	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Alexandra Robert Gordon	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Michael McNaughton	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Richard Darwin	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Christopher Hite	2016 - Present	Jerry Brown
Jeffrey S. Ross	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Brian Stretch	2024 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Russell Roeca	2020 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Eric Fleming	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Vedica Puri	2019 - Present
Michelle Tong	January 4, 2021 - Present
Braden C. Woods	2013 - Present	Jerry Brown
Carolyn Gold	January 4, 2021 - Present
Brian Ferrall	2020 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Loretta M. Giorgi		Arnold Schwarzenegger
Curtis E.A. Karnow
Simon J. Frankel	2022 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Michael Rhoads	2022 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Murlene Randle	2020 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Monica F. Wiley	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Andrew Y.S. Cheng	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Michael Begert	2011 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bruce E. Chan	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger

Former judges

For information on former judges of the Superior Court of San Francisco County, click here.

Footnotes

v • e Local ballot measures in California

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Analysis	Laws governing local ballot measures in California • Ballot measure information on California county websites • Costs of administering local elections • Required approval rates for local California ballot measures

Political topics	Advisory votes • Binding arbitration • Business taxes • City charters • Election and voting laws • Gambling • Gann overrides • Hotel taxes • Incorporations • Immigration • Jurisdictional boundaries • Labor • Marijuana • Marijuana taxes • Mottos • Municipal bonds • Parcel taxes • Pensions • Project-Labor Agreements • Recall • Red light cameras • Rent control • Salaries of local officials • Sales taxes • School bonds • Term limits • Utility user taxes • Vehicle registration taxes • Zoning and land use

Tax measures	Business taxes • Hotel taxes • Marijuana taxes • Oil and gas • Parcel taxes • Real estate transfer taxes • Sales taxes • Utility user taxes • Vehicle registration taxes

	v • e State of California Sacramento (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? \| Elections in 2025 \| How to vote \| How to run for office \| Ballot measures
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Elections

See also: California judicial elections

California is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in California, click here.

Election rules

Primary election

Only candidates for the superior courts compete in primary elections.

If a superior court judge runs unopposed for re-election, his or her name does not appear on the ballot and he or she is automatically re-elected following the general election.^[1]^[2]

Write-in candidates may file to run against an incumbent within 10 days after the filing deadline passes if they are able to secure enough signatures (between 100 and 600, depending on the number of registered voters in the county). In that case, the incumbent would appear on the general election ballot along with an option to vote for a write-in candidate.^[2]

In contested races, the candidate who receives a majority of all the votes in the primary wins the election. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes in the primary, the top two compete in the November general election.^[3]

General election

Superior court candidates who advance from the primary election compete in the general election.

Superior court incumbents facing competition from write-in candidates appear on the ballot.^[2]^[3]