California Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye has announced that she will not seek a second 12-year term in November and will conclude her current term of office on January 1, reports the Associated Press.
The announcement will give Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, his third opportunity to appoint a justice to the seven-member high court, and his first to pick a new chief justice, reports the Associated Press.
Cantil-Sakauye was sworn into office in January 2011 after she was nominated by former Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and was elected in the November 2010 general election.
She said in a statement that Newsom “will have a diverse pool of exceptionally well qualified jurists and legal professionals to choose from, and I believe the judiciary, the courts, and access to justice in California will be in good hands.”
The Sacramento native was appointed to Sacramento Municipal Court by then-Gov. George Deukmejian in 1990 and to the Sacramento County Superior Court by then-Gov. Pete Wilson in 1997, where she created and presided over the county’s first court dedicated to handling domestic violence cases.
Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated her for the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento in 2005 before tapping her for the Supreme Court to succeed retiring Chief Justice Ronald George.
She is the first Asian-Filipina American and the second woman to serve as the state’s Chief Justice.
