From juvenile court to water law, Boulware Eurie expands her reach 

Justice Stacy E. Boulware Eurie has taught judges a wide range of subjects for nearly two decades. Lately, she has been learning new ones alongside them.

Through the Judicial Council's education programs, the 3rd District Court of Appeal justice helps train judicial officers statewide who preside over water and environmental cases. The intellectual challenge, she said in an email, "has moved me out of my comfort zone and helped me become more competent in these lesser known, but increasingly litigated, areas of the law."

Boulware Eurie, appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022, asks voters Nov. 3 for a full 12-year term.

In Garst v. Tehama County Flood Control & Water Conservation Dist. (2026) she wrote for a unanimous panel that a groundwater well registration charge was an unconstitutional tax. Acting under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the district imposed 29 cents an acre on every parcel in Tehama County, whether or not the property had a well or used groundwater.

Because the charge had no connection to a regulated activity, it was not a regulatory fee under Proposition 26 and needed voter approval, she wrote. "No statutory purpose, however important, can override a constitutional mandate." The panel struck the trial court's refund order because the property owner had not filed a Government Claims Act claim.

Wildfire risk figured in Urban Sunrise LLC v. Vogt (2026), in which she upheld summary judgment for real estate agents sued after a buyer forfeited more than $1.1 million on five South Lake Tahoe properties. The buyer could not obtain financing because of fire insurance costs but had received repeated warnings and agreed to seek independent insurance advice. "Plaintiffs cannot avoid the plain language of their signed contracts," she wrote. The panel also affirmed a $492,800 commission award.

Election law interests her, too, a carryover from her years in the attorney general's Government Law Section. In Ehrenreich v. Weber (2026), she upheld California's requirement that write-in presidential candidates submit pledges from 54 electors and 54 alternates before the election for their votes to be counted. She found the requirement politically neutral and justified by the state's interest in seating pledged electors.

Criminal appeals make up most of the 3rd District's docket. In People v. Atencio (2026), she reversed a kidnapping-for-robbery conviction against a man who held a woman at gunpoint, tied her up and moved her from her yard into her home while robbing her.

The movement was incidental to the robbery, she wrote, because there was no evidence anyone could have seen or heard the victim outside. The panel upheld the robbery conviction but ordered resentencing.

Before joining the appellate bench, Boulware Eurie spent 15 years on the Sacramento County Superior Court, including eight as presiding judge of the juvenile court. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her in 2007, making her one of the few California judges appointed by governors of both major parties.

Her interest in children and the courts continues through statewide leadership. A voting member of the Judicial Council, she chairs its Legislation Committee and co-chairs the California Child Welfare Council with the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. The council brings together state and county agencies, service providers, advocates, parents and former foster youth to improve coordination with the courts in the child welfare system.

She also remains active in civic education through Sacramento's Operation Protect and Defend and the chief justice's Power of Democracy initiative. She represents the 3rd District on the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal Bias Prevention Committee, which addresses bias and diversity within the judicial branch.