SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Appellate Judge Carol A. Corrigan was confirmed to the California Supreme Court, where the former prosecutor replaces the most conservative justice on the state’s highest court.

Corrigan, 57, who sits on the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, is a former trial judge and Alameda County prosecutor who was elevated to the appeals court in 1994 by former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson after changing her voter registration from Democrat to Republican.

Corrigan, who graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1975, was unanimously approved by the Commission on Judicial Appointments.

The white Catholic and Stockton native was selected by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to succeed Janice Rogers Brown, the seven-member court’s most conservative judge, and only black member. Brown resigned June 30 after the U.S. Senate confirmed her to a federal appeals court in the District of Columbia.

California’s top court nominees do not need approval by lawmakers, but require two of three votes from a commission composed of Chief Justice Ronald M. George, a Republican; Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a Democrat; and 2nd District Court of Appeal Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, a Democrat.

Corrigan’s first case is one of the highest profile on the docket since the 2005-2006 term began in September.

The case concerns whether the city of Berkeley can refuse to provide free berthing at the Berkeley Marina to the Sea Scouts, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Boy Scouts. The city provides free docking to nonprofit groups, but won’t offer it to the scouts because it allegedly discriminates against gays. The scouts maintain Berkeley is discriminating against them.

The Supreme Court could be asked to decide whether it’s unconstitutional to bar lesbians and gays from getting married. Other cases include whether Native American tribes, the state’s biggest monetary donors to politicians, are bound by state campaign disclosure rules.

The last vacancy on the court, which is the final arbiter of California law disputes, was filled in 2001 by Carlos Moreno, the court’s only Democrat and Hispanic. He replaced the late Justice Stanley Mosk.

With Corrigan’s confirmation, the court will consist of two white men, a Hispanic man, an Asian man, an Asian woman and two white women.

Court watchers said Corrigan was a moderate conservative, unlike her predecessor.