Skip to main content

CLBC APPLAUDS GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN’S SELECTION OF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN FOR THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT

Last African American Appointed to the California Supreme Court was in 1996.

SACRAMENTO – Today, Governor Jerry Brown announced Leondra R. Kruger as his choice for associate justice of the California Supreme Court. This marks the second African American woman and the fourth African American to be appointed to the California Supreme Court since 1996.

“As a Caucus, we applaud Governor Jerry Brown for his selection and appreciate his hearkening to our continuous request for more African Americans to be appointed to the California judicial system,” said Senator Holly J. Mitchell, Chair of the CLBC.

Today’s appointment of Leondra R. Kruger to California’s highest court, establishes Governor Jerry Brown’s record of having appointed the most African Americans to the California Supreme Court, starting with his appointment of Justice Wiley W. Manuel in 1977, as the first African American, and Justice Allen Broussard in 1981. Leondra R. Kruger will be the second African American woman to be appointed to the California Supreme Court since Justice Janice Rogers Brown in 1996.

Leondra R. Kruger, 38, of Washington, D.C., has served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel since 2013. She served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General and as Acting Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General from 2007 to 2013. While serving in that office, she argued 12 cases on behalf of the federal government before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Kruger earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Kruger was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. She is a member of the State Bar of California.