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Leondra Kruger
2015 - Present
2031
10
Leondra Kruger is a judge of the California Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2015. Her current term ends on January 6, 2031.
Kruger ran for re-election for judge of the California Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 6, 2018.
She was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown on November 24, 2014, to replace Justice Joyce Kennard. Her appointment was confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments on December 22, and she took office in January 2015. She was retained by voters for a full 12-year term in November 2018.[1][2] She is the second African-American woman to serve on the California Supreme Court.[3] To read more about judicial selection in California, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[4] Kruger received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Education
Kruger received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College and her J.D. degree from the Yale Law School.[1] Prior to assuming her seat on the state supreme court, Kruger served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2013 to 2014. She also served as an assistant and deputy to the U.S. Solicitor General from 2007 to 2013. From 2003 to 2004, she clerked for United States Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, and from 2002 to 2003 she clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[6] From 2004 to 2006 Kruger was an associate with Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP, and from 2001 to 2002 she was an associate with Jenner and Block LLP.[1]
Elections
2018
- See also: California Supreme Court elections, 2018
California Supreme Court
Leondra Kruger was retained to the California Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 72.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
72.8
|
6,698,643 | ||
No |
27.2
|
2,506,418 | |||
Total Votes |
9,205,061 | ||||
|
|
Judicial nominations and appointments
Possible Joe Biden nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court
On January 27, 2022, United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer officially announced he would retire at the start of the court's summer recess, which typically took place in late June or early July.[7][8] NBC News had previously reported the retirement on January 26.[9] On February 15, Biden announced he would nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson.[10]
As of January 27, President Joe Biden (D) had not announced a list of nominees he was considering. During the retirement announcement, Biden said he would select a nominee by the end of February and that: "The person I will nominate will be someone of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court."[11]
On February 12, the Associated Press reported that Biden's shortlist included Kruger, J. Michelle Childs, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.[12] On February 22, CNN reported that Biden had interviewed the three candidates on the shortlist.[13] Kruger was also mentioned by two or more media outlets as a possible nominee to fill Breyer's seat on the court.[14][15][16][17] Click here to read more about the vacancy and nomination process.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[18]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[19]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Leondra
Kruger
California
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Direct gubernatorial appointment - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- State was a Democratic trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Kruger was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D). At the time of her appointment California was a Democratic trifecta. California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban counseled Gov. Brown on Kruger’s appointment.
State supreme court judicial selection in California
- See also: Judicial selection in California
The seven justices of the California Supreme Court are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The state bar's Commission on Judicial Nominee Evaluation—also known as the "Jenny Commission"—is required to perform an extensive investigation on prospective appointees. The commission recommends candidates to the governor after examining their qualifications and fitness, ranking them as exceptionally well qualified, well qualified, qualified, or not qualified. The commission is composed of attorneys and public members.[20][21] Although the governor is not bound to these recommendations, the Commission on Judicial Appointments can approve or veto the appointment by majority vote.[22]
Following confirmation from the Commission on Judicial Appointments, the appointed justice is sworn into office and is subject to voter approval at the next gubernatorial election. The appointed justice must be confirmed by voters via a yes-no retention election. According to the California Constitution, the term for a supreme court justice is 12 years. If retained by the voters, the appointed justice remains in office but their term may depend on their predecessor's term. If the predecessor served part of their term before leaving office, the appointed justice would be retained to serve the remainder of their predecessor's term. This would be for either four or eight years. At the end of that term, the justice again must be confirmed by the voters at a gubernatorial election to begin a new 12-year term.[23][24] If a justice has been appointed to a seat where the predecessor's term would have expired the January 1 immediately after that November gubernatorial election, then the justice would serve a full 12-year term.[25]
Qualifications
To serve as a justice, a candidate must have practiced law for at least 10 years in California or served as a judge in California for at least 10 years.[25]
Chief justice
The court uses the same process described above for selecting its chief justice. The governor, with commission approval, appoints a chief justice for a full 12-year term.[26]
Vacancies
Vacancies are filled by gubernatorial appointment. Appointed judges are required to participate in yes-no retention elections occurring at the time of the next gubernatorial race, which is held every four years.[25]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder California Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 CA.gov: Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., "Governor Brown selects Leondra R. Kruger for California Supreme Court," November 24, 2014
- ↑ SF Gate, "Leondra Kruger approved as new California Supreme Court justice," December 22, 2014
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Expected California Supreme Court nominee Leondra Kruger a 'mind blower'," November 24, 2014
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ California Courts, "Associate Justice Leondra R. Kruger," accessed February 1, 2019
- ↑ United States Supreme Court, "Letter to President," January 27, 2022
- ↑ YouTube, "President Biden Delivers Remarks on the Retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer," January 27, 2022
- ↑ NBC News, "Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from Supreme Court, paving way for Biden appointment," January 26, 2022
- ↑ White House, "President Biden Nominates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to Serve as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court," February 25, 2022
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedretire - ↑ The Guardian, "Biden’s supreme court short list narrows to three names," February 12, 2022
- ↑ CNN, "Biden has met with at least three potential Supreme Court nominees; announcement expected soon," February 22, 2022
- ↑ CNN, "Biden said he'd put a Black woman on the Supreme Court. Here's who he may pick to replace Breyer," January 26, 2022
- ↑ Vox, "Who is on Biden’s shortlist to replace retiring Justice Breyer?," January 26, 2022
- ↑ Fox News, "Who could replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer?," January 26, 2022
- ↑ The Associated Press via the Hartford Courant, "President Biden has long been preparing for a Supreme Court pick," January 26, 2022
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The State Bar of California, "Background," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ The State Bar of California, "Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ California Legislative Information, "Article VI Judicial Sec. 16.," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Justices of the Supreme Court," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 California Courts, "Judicial Selection: How California Chooses Its Judges and Justices," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Justia, "Supreme Court of California Decisions," accessed March 27, 2023
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