Justice Stephen Breyer is expected to announce tomorrow that he’ll retire from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of the Court’s term about five months from now, according to numerous reports. (E.g., here, here, and here.)
The impending vacancy brings attention back to California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger. President Biden made a campaign promise to name the Court’s first Black woman justice and Justice Kruger is regularly mentioned as a leading candidate. Adam Liptak in the New York Times, for example, writes today: “Speculation about whom Mr. Biden might nominate has centered on two possibilities: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who graduated from Harvard Law School and served as a law clerk to Justice Breyer, and Justice Leondra R. Kruger of the California Supreme Court, who graduated from Yale Law School and served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens.”
Ever since Biden’s pledge, Justice Kruger has attracted national attention. Because of her stature as a prospective U.S. Supreme Court justice, we created — and have continued to update — a document with links to At The Lectern blog posts that chronicle her career since she was appointed to the California Supreme Court. (See here.)
