Another Supreme Court vacancy, another Bay Area-based law professor to fill it.
Gov. Jerry Brown has nominated Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar to serve on the California Supreme Court. Cuéllar would replace retiring Marvin Baxter, according to the Sacramento Bee.
A native of Mexico who grew up in border territory -- crossing the then-imaginary line, in pre-fence days, in order to attend school in the United States -- and in California's Imperial Valley, Cuéllar served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, where he advised the president on immigration issues, the newspaper reported.
Before Cuéllar, Brown named then-UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the state's high court. If Cuéllar is confirmed, he and Liu would be the only Democrats on a court stocked with "Republican appointees," the newspaper reported.
Cuéllar would also be the court's sole Latino, after Carlos Moreno's retirement in 2011.
He's taught at Stanford since 2001, and has degrees from Harvard and Yale. He's also married to a federal judge, the newspaper reported.
Local
Voters could approve his appointment at the Nov. 4 ballot.
