Potential Biden Supreme Court pick Leondra Kruger known as moderate in
California
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[January 27, 2022]
By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) - Before she turned to law and
became one of the youngest justices ever appointed to the California
Supreme Court, Leondra Kruger had journalism in her blood.
Kruger, considered a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee for President
Joe Biden to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, was
editor-in-chief of her high school's newspaper. Later, at Harvard
University, she wrote for the daily student paper, the Crimson. While
attending Yale Law School, she became editor-in-chief of the Yale Law
Journal.
The reputation she gained as a young journalist for being thoughtful and
careful has followed her to the judiciary, where the 45-year-old jurist
has become known for her incremental approach to deciding cases.
Her moderate approach might help her win confirmation in a U.S. Senate
evenly split between Democrats and Republicans if Biden chooses her to
replace Breyer. Kruger would make history as the first Black woman to
serve on the top U.S. judicial body.
"I see her as cautious in her use of judicial power," said David
Ettinger, a Los Angeles attorney who is an expert on the California
Supreme Court. "I think she's concerned about digging into the details
of legal issues, rather than letting ideological predilections determine
the outcome of the case."
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Biden has promised to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. It has
had only two Black justices, both men: Clarence Thomas, appointed in
1991 and still serving, and Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991 and
died in 1993. If confirmed, Kruger also would become the sixth woman
ever to serve on the Supreme Court.
Kruger previously worked at the U.S. Justice Department under presidents
of both parties, arguing 12 cases before the Supreme Court.
Democratic former California Governor Jerry Brown named Kruger to the
top court in the most populous U.S. state in 2014 when she was age 38.
Kruger's former colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, praised the
move. Paul Clement, who served as U.S. solicitor general under
Republican former President George W. Bush, said at the time, "She
combines an understated and easygoing manner with a keen legal mind and
unquestioned integrity."
MODERATE VOICE
Observers of the liberal-leaning, seven-member California high court
said, while its rulings are largely unanimous, Kruger probably straddles
its ideological middle - moderately liberal on civil cases, more
conservative on criminal matters.
During seven years on the California Supreme Court, Kruger has
participated in a number of other important cases.
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![](../images/012722pics/news_n27.jpg)
California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger is seen in an
undated photo, U.S. Supreme Court of California/via REUTERS
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In 2018, Kruger authored a 4-3 ruling that upheld a law requiring
people arrested for suspected felonies to provide DNA specimens, even
before charges are filed. The dissenting justices warned of a
"biological dragnet" that was not "carefully calibrated to identify
felony offenders."
Kruger's ruling was narrow. Evoking the principle of "judicial
restraint," she emphasized the seriousness of the crime at issue in that
specific case - arson - and left open the possibility of other
challenges in different circumstances.
In 2019, Kruger joined a unanimous ruling that struck down a
Democratic-backed state law targeting Republican former President Donald
Trump that sought to prevent him from appearing as a candidate on
California's presidential primary ballot because he did not disclose his
personal income tax returns.
"My approach reflects the fact that we operate in a system of
precedent," Kruger told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. "I aim to perform
my job in a way that enhances the predictability and stability of the
law and public confidence and trust in the work of the courts."
In 2019, Kruger wrote a unanimous ruling that upheld a white
supremacist's convictions, including for murder, but overturned
the death sentence because the prosecution had invited the jury to weigh
the man's racist beliefs in determining whether to impose the death
penalty.
In the case of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife
Laci and unborn son during a 2004 trial that drew outsized media
coverage, Kruger in 2020 wrote a unanimous ruling affirming his
conviction but overturning his death penalty due to errors in jury
selection.
Growing up in the Los Angeles area, Kruger attended Polytechnic, a
private high school in Pasadena. A former schoolmate who edited her work
on the school newspaper called Kruger "cool and calm" in an article
published in 2020.
She "could be funny and gossipy with friends, but she chose her words
with great care, which made you listen more closely," wrote Joe
Mathews in Zocalo Public Square, a Los Angeles-based publication.
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Kruger's mother, who moved to the United States from Jamaica, and
father, the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, were both
pediatricians. She is married to Brian Hauck, also a lawyer in San
Francisco. The couple has two young children.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott
Malone)
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