Shama MesiwalaIncumbent

Candidate for Court of Appeal Justice, California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, Seat 2

Shama Hakim Mesiwala has served as an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, since February 14, 2023. She was born in Stanford, California, in 1974. She was raised in Cupertino. She graduated magna cum laude from UC San Diego. She earned her J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law in 1998. Her early career was in public-sector appellate work, and in work defending the poor. She represented poor criminal defendants at the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Sacramento. She also did this work through the Central California Appellate Program. She argued before the California Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal. She worked at the Third District Court of Appeal as a judicial attorney, first on central staff for about a year and a half, then for about 11 years in the chambers of Justice Ronald B. Robie. She served on the Sacramento County Superior Court from 2017 to 2023. First, briefly, she was a commissioner. Then, she was a judge. Gov. Gavin Newsom put her name up for the Third District on December 23, 2022. The Commission on Judicial Appointments confirmed her, with no votes against, on February 14, 2023. The State Bar's group that rates judicial picks, the Commission on Judicial Nominee Evaluation, rated her exceptionally well qualified. News reports at her confirmation said she was the first South Asian woman to sit on a U.S. appeals court. They also said she was the first Muslim American woman to do so. She has taught appellate advocacy at UC Davis School of Law. She also helped start the South Asian Bar Association of Sacramento. She joined the court after the 2022 general election had passed. So the November 3, 2026 ballot is her first time facing the voters. It will be a nonpartisan retention vote, with no one running against her, on whether she stays in office.

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