California’s Supreme Court Was Split. Leondra Kruger Found the Center.
The New York Times
Known for her ‘elegant’ mind, the moderate judge, now on President Biden’s short list of potential high court nominees, could be a mediating force in Washington.
SACRAMENTO — In 2014, when then-Governor Jerry Brown nominated Leondra R. Kruger to the California Supreme Court, the immediate reaction in her home state was: Leondra who?
She was just 38. While she was born and brought up in California, her career had been in Washington, D.C., as a government lawyer. A retired veteran of the state appellate bench complained that her nomination was a “slap in the face” because she had “never been a judge at any level.” Willie Brown, a former mayor of San Francisco, asked in The San Francisco Chronicle “why the governor had to go all the way to the East Coast” for a new justice.
“Were there no qualified African Americans in California?” wrote the mayor, who is African American.
With few signs of progress on a proposed redevelopment project, one group is hoping to move the famous arena.
The administration’s warning came just after it pulled hundreds of millions of dollars from Columbia University.
Instead of speaking out on the hot-button debates of the day, more schools are making it a policy to stay silent as political pressure mounts against higher education.
In his second term, President Trump is cultivating warm relationships with G.O.P. lawmakers — and using the implicit threat of ruining them if they stray — to keep them in line behind his agenda.
Federal agencies are removing topsoil from burned areas but will not test it for contaminants. So scientists and residents are testing fire-affected properties themselves.
President Trump is planning to gut the work force while trying to turn the I.R.S. into a more political agency.
Three mayoral candidates have been accused of sexual misconduct. They deny wrongdoing. Will it be a deciding issue for Democratic voters?
President Trump has made clear he wants to keep both men and their allies within his movement, but the tensions are growing.
The authorities said there were no initial reports of damage from the quake, which struck in the hills west of Malibu.
The state and the correctional officers’ union agreed that officers should return to work Monday and that some provisions of a solitary confinement law would be put on pause.
One of the three media witnesses to the execution of Brad Sigmon in South Carolina on Friday describes what he saw.
The utility that serves New York City and Westchester County has filed a request to raise its rates to help pay for the shift to cleaner energy, sparking dismay among residents.
Clinical trials have been delayed, contracts canceled and support staff fired. With deeper cuts coming, some are warning of potential harms to veterans.