[1] In 1972, his final year as a Deputy Attorney General, George unsuccessfully argued before the California Supreme Court in People v. Anderson, involving the constitutionality of the death penalty.

[1][4] In that trial, George made the extremely unusual decision to deny the District Attorney's motion to dismiss all 10 counts of murder.

[4] Thus, it was recognized that the judge, through his action to deny the earlier motion to dismiss, had ultimately prevented a serial killer from going free.

[1][4] Governor Pete Wilson appointed George as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court on July 29, 1991, and he was sworn in on September 3.

[11] Citing the court's 1948 decision legalizing interracial marriages,[12] George's opinion found that sexual orientation is a protected class like race and gender, meaning that attempts to ban same-sex marriage would be subject to strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution.

[14] George was occasionally floated as a candidate for justice of the United States Supreme Court as a conservative acceptable to Democrats, such as when Democratic United States Senator Barbara Boxer suggested George as a potential nominee for the seat on the Court vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.

Boxer described both George and his fellow California Supreme Court Justice Kathryn Werdegar, as Republicans who "reflect the spirit of Sandra Day O'Connor's tenure—independent and nonideological.

"[15] On July 14, 2010, Chief Justice George announced he would not seek to be re-elected in 2010 and would therefore retire at the end of his term: January 2, 2011.

[21] In 2013, after his retirement, he published a book of memoirs, Chief: The Quest for Justice in California, about his legal and judicial career.