Who Is Joshua Groban? The California Supreme Court Justice on the November 3 Ballot

If you live in California, you will see the name Joshua Groban on your ballot on November 3, 2026. He is an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, and voters are being asked whether he should stay on the court. Here is who he is, why his name is on the ballot, and what your vote actually decides.

Who is Joshua Groban?

Joshua Groban is a judge on California’s highest court, the California Supreme Court. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him in November 2018 to fill the seat left by Justice Kathryn Werdegar, who had retired. He was confirmed on December 21, 2018, and sworn into office on January 3, 2019.

Before joining the court, Groban worked as a lawyer, not as a trial judge. He studied at Stanford University, where he graduated with honors, and then earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. He clerked for a federal judge in New York from 1998 to 1999, then worked at major law firms in New York and Los Angeles until 2010.

From 2011 to 2018, he was a senior adviser to Governor Brown, where he worked on judicial appointments and advised on court and legal policy. In that role, he helped advise on more than 600 judicial appointments across the state. He also teaches state appellate practice at UCLA School of Law.

Why is he on the ballot?

California does not elect its Supreme Court justices the way it elects a governor or a mayor. The system works like this: the governor appoints a justice, a state commission confirms the appointment, and then voters get to decide at election time whether that justice stays.

That vote is called a retention vote. There is no opposing candidate. The ballot simply asks whether the justice should be elected to the office for the term provided by law, and voters answer yes or no.

Groban already faced voters once. In 2022, he was retained with 68 percent of the vote. But that vote only covered the rest of Justice Werdegar’s term, which runs out in 2027. This time, on November 3, 2026, he is asking voters for a full 12-year term.

What does a yes or no vote mean?

A majority of yes votes keeps Groban on the court for the full term. A majority of no votes means he cannot be elected to that court, and the seat would then be filled through the normal appointment process, with the governor nominating a replacement.

The question appears on ballots in all 58 California counties, since it is a statewide office. Fellow Associate Justice Kelli Evans is on the same ballot with a separate retention question, and voters can answer each one differently.

One thing people get mixed up

Yes, he shares a name with the singer Josh Groban, and no, they are not the same person. Justice Groban is the judge. The shared name has caused plenty of mix-ups over the years, and he has joked about it himself, saying he has no musical talent at all.

What has he ruled on recently?

One ruling that has drawn attention in 2026 is a unanimous opinion Groban wrote in a case known as J.O. v. Superior Court. In it, the court pushed back against so-called “blanket challenges,” a practice where lawyers or prosecutors file disqualification motions to systematically push certain judges off cases. Groban wrote that the practice threatened the independence and fairness of the courts.

Retention votes sit far down the ballot, and many voters skip them or guess. If you are a California voter, the basic facts are simple: Groban has served on the state’s highest court since 2019, he was retained once in 2022, and on November 3, 2026, voters decide whether he serves a full 12-year term.