Associate Justice Michael J. Raphael faces a yes-or-no retention vote for his seat on the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Two, on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot.

The race is nonpartisan. No opposing candidate appears on the ballot. Voters will decide whether Raphael keeps his appellate seat.

Candidate information

  • Office sought: California Court of Appeal Associate Justice, District 4, Division 2
  • Election: California General Election, Nov. 3, 2026
  • Party: Nonpartisan
  • Ballot status: Certified for the ballot
  • Education: Bachelor's degree from Rice University (1990); J.D. from Yale Law School (1993)
  • Personal: Fourth-generation Southern Californian; first lawyer or judge in his family

Experience and public service

Raphael has served on the bench since 2012. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the Los Angeles County Superior Court that year, according to his Fourth Appellate District biography. While on the trial court, he was twice appointed to serve as a pro tem justice in Division Five of the Second District Court of Appeal.

In 2018, Brown nominated Raphael to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two. The Commission on Judicial Appointments confirmed him unanimously after the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission gave him an "exceptionally well qualified" rating, according to his court biography.

Before joining the bench, Raphael served as an assistant United States attorney in the Central District of California from 1999 to 2012. He became deputy chief of the Criminal Appeals Section in 2005 and rose to chief of that section in 2007. As a federal prosecutor, he prosecuted more than 60 federal felony cases in trial court and personally argued 41 cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, including three en banc cases before an 11-judge panel, according to his court biography.

Raphael was also appointed special counsel in the Northern District of California. He investigated and prosecuted the illegal leak of grand jury testimony provided by Barry Bonds and other athletes during a government investigation of steroids in sports.

Earlier in his career, Raphael served as investigative counsel for the U.S. House Government Reform Committee from 1997 to 1999. He clerked for Judge Nathaniel R. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and worked as a trial and appellate litigator at a national law firm in Washington, D.C.

Raphael has also taught legal courses. He co-taught Advanced Appellate Advocacy at the Gould School of Law at the University of California in 2005 and 2006 and a criminal sentencing seminar in 2008. He taught writing and advocacy courses as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law while serving on the House committee. At Yale Law School, he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and an editor of the Yale Journal of Law & Policy.

Endorsements

The reviewed candidate profile did not include endorsement information for this race.

On the issues

No issue responses or policy statements were available in the reviewed candidate materials.

Editor's note: This profile was prepared using publicly available information from the candidate's official court biography. No candidate questionnaire responses were available at the time of publication.