Q&A with Justice Shama Mesiwala on the Tribal Court-State Court Forum

Justice Shama Mesiwala of the Third Appellate District was appointed co-chair of the Judicial Council's Tribal Court-State Court Forum, effective September 15. Justice Mesiwala has served as a justice on the Third Appellate District since 2023 and previously served as a judge and commissioner in the Sacramento Superior Court. In this Q&A, she talks more about her experience with tribal issues in the state courts and the importance of working collaboratively with justice partners.

What is behind your interest in serving on the Tribal Court-State Court Forum?

I have been involved in Native American issues as a lawyer and a judge for the last 26 years. As a lawyer in 1999, I was given my first dependency appeal that had an ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) issue. I was given ICWA issues since as a research attorney at the Court of Appeal starting in 2004, a dependency commissioner and judge starting in 2017, and now as a justice on the Court of Appeal. I believe that our lives are always speaking to us and I believe that for whatever reason, these issues found me and I took a great interest in them.

When I was at the [Sacramento] trial court as a commissioner and judge, I had a chance to start the first Northern California ICWA courtroom with some incredible people, including Sarah Davis who is now the new director of the Center for Families, Children, and the Courts at the Judicial Council. We were able to start it so quickly because we had the support of court leadership, Sacramento's Department of Child, Family, and Adult Services, the law firms that represent children's counsel and parents' counsel, and most importantly, all of the tribes that regularly appeared in our courtrooms in Sacramento. What was integral was that Sarah had the foresight to get Zoom for my courtroom at a time when nobody knew what Zoom was. This made it so the tribes could Zoom into my courtroom instead of making the many hour-long drives from their locations, often at considerable expense. The Zoom technology arrived three days before the pandemic! Sarah has always been a visionary, and it was people like her who helped me start that ICWA courtroom in Sacramento many years ago.

What were some of your biggest takeaways from meeting with the rest of the forum in September?

In my role as a judicial officer, I'm mindful of how much our state court judges need to be made aware of tribal issues. We have the state judiciary, we have the federal judiciary, and we have the tribes, all of whom are equal sovereigns.

Education at the state court level is important, because there were so many things I didn't know and still don't know about the tribes as sovereigns. I want to learn as much as I can and then hopefully help educate my fellow state judicial officers. That would be something that I would love to help effectuate in the forum.

From your level of involvement and observation so far with the forum, what are some of the ways you've seen the Tribal Court-State Court Forum make an impact on our justice system in the state?

When justice partners come together collaboratively with the idea of serving all of our citizens effectively, we produce the best access to justice. What I loved about the in-person forum meeting in September was we came together with open minds and hearts. People spoke about the problems they were having such as enforcing tribal orders. We had different stakeholders in the room who spoke as to what they thought the problem was and then we brainstormed solutions. While we couldn't provide a quick fix, I saw that people were committed to listening and looking for solutions.

What are you most excited about working on with the Tribal Court-State Court Forum?

Anytime I get to work with Judge Abby Abinanti is exciting and inspirational.

And working with all of our tribal partners to advance justice for all people who reside in our jurisdictions gives me great hope.

I look forward to continuing to work with [council staff] Vida Castaneda on the forum. She and Ann Gilmour were instrumental in helping me and Sacramento Superior Court form our ICWA courtroom and create a replicable model for other counties.

Judge Joyce Hinrichs, who served as co-chair of this forum for the last many years, provided on-the-ground vision for what a state court collaboration looks like with the tribes in her county. I'm honored to be stepping into that role behind Judge Hinrichs.

What do you hope the forum accomplishes in the next five years and what is your long term vision for the forum?

I look forward to listening and learning from the many people who are on the forum or who provide advice to the forum. I hope to use whatever skills I have to move our collective vision for the forum forward.

I hope that people see in my work with tribal issues and state issues the willingness to listen, and the willingness to try to make situations better for everybody who inhabits our lands. While I don't know what all the problems are, and I certainly don't know the solutions, I trust that the existence of the forum and people's willingness to engage genuinely means that we will be able to advance justice for the betterment of all of our people.

About the Tribal Court-State Court Forum

What began with a simple request by one tribal court judge for a meeting with the Chief Justice of the State of California has taken us to where we are today in California, the coming together of tribal court and state court leaders as equal partners to address areas of mutual concern. The first, historic meeting was held in December 2009 and led to the establishment of the Tribal Court-State Court Forum (forum) in May 2010. In October 2013, the California Judicial Council adopted rule 10.60 of the California Rules of Court establishing the forum as a formal advisory committee. In adopting this rule, the Judicial Council added a Comment acknowledging that tribes are sovereign and citing statutory and case law recognizing tribes as distinct, independent political nations that retain inherent authority to establish their own form of government, including tribal justice systems.

The forum makes recommendations to the council for improving the administration of justice in all proceedings in which the authority to exercise jurisdiction by the state judicial branch and the tribal justice systems overlaps.