Two days after voters approved Patricia Guerrero to become California's first Latina Supreme Court chief justice in January, a state panel on Thursday approved Kelli Evans to be the high court's first openly lesbian justice.
The moves mark the last dominos to fall after Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye announced in July that she will step down in January.
Newsom, a Democrat who was handily reelected Tuesday, first elevated Guerrero to lead the nation's largest judicial system, just months after he had appointed her to the state Supreme Court.Evans was approved Thursday by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, consisting of Cantil-Sakauye, state Attorney General Rob Bonta and Judge Manuel Ramirez, the senior presiding justice of the state Court of Appeal.
"I believe that my grandmother would have understood, as I do, that the law it's so much more than an esoteric ivory tower exercise. At its core, what is the law about? It's about real people and real communities," she said. Evans has been an Alameda County Superior Court judge just since last year. She previously was Newsom's chief deputy legal affairs secretary, where his office said she helped him shape a moratorium on capital punishment that Newsom issued in 2019.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Illinois Supreme Court majority in the balance as vote counting begins in two contested racesDemocrats and Republicans are waiting to see which party will get a majority on the Illinois Supreme Court following a vote portrayed as a referendum on abortion rights
Read more »
Early returns show Republicans poised to sweep 3 Ohio Supreme Court racesOhio Republicans are poised to win all three state supreme court races, early returns show.
Read more »
Supreme Court weighs case pitting non-Indian families against tribes over child adoptionsA group of foster families appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, fighting to adopt Indian children over objections from tribes and the federal government, telling the justices that the federal law restricting their adoptions is discriminatory.
Read more »
The Supreme Court May Ensure Native Kids’ Ancestry Is Erased—Just Like Mine WasConservative lawyers engineered this case to help white families take Native children away from their tribes.
Read more »