Add one more to the list of articles suggesting Justice Leondra Kruger might be leaving the California Supreme Court for Washington, D.C., soon or relatively soon. Irin Carmon has this long piece in New York magazine, “What Will It Take to Get a Black Woman on the Supreme Court? The fate of Biden’s campaign promise lies with Georgia.”
The article includes these observations:
Two names, though, have come up most often in conversations with legal insiders: California State Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and federal district court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former clerk to the oldest current Supreme Court justice, Stephen Breyer. Both have impeccable credentials — and, crucial to a lifetime appointment, are in their mid-40s.
. . . . .
The upcoming pick for solicitor general, the Senate-confirmed lawyer who argues the federal government’s case before the justices, could smooth the path. The first Black solicitor general, Thurgood Marshall, became the first Black justice; the first woman to hold the position, Elena Kagan, now sits on the Court. Even now, very few women appear before the justices, and even fewer aren’t white. Kruger, who argued a dozen Supreme Court cases while holding senior roles at the solicitor general’s office, is being floated for the role.
Kruger got a boost this month when a coalition of progressive groups, including Demand Justice and Indivisible, endorsed her and several other Black women in a letter to Biden urging him to pick a Black woman for solicitor general. Though she’s been described as a moderate, Kruger is on their list of suggestions, along with Rutgers’ Elise Boddie, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law president Kristen Clarke, NYU law professor Melissa Murray, the Innocence Project’s Christina Swarns, and Sherrilyn Ifill and Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Related:
Justice Kruger is “perhaps the leading candidate” as a Biden U.S. Supreme Court pick
“California Justice Leondra Kruger Sees Spotlight Amid Biden Transition”
Justice Kruger possibly the next U.S. Solicitor General
“Two Would-Be Supreme Court Justices and Me”
Biden’s promise raises Justice Kruger’s profile as a potential SCOTUS nominee
Justices Liu, Cuéllar, and Kruger are again proposed as SCOTUS nominees
