(JAMAICA OBSERVER) – Supreme Court Justice and Deputy assistant US attorney general, Leondra Kruger is one of three judges being eyed by US President Joe Biden to fill a vacancy in the Supreme Court as he prepares to deliver on his promise of nominating the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court.
But aside from the bit of history Biden hopes to write with the appointment, Jamaicans may have a vested interest in the US President’s decision as Kruger is of Jamaican descent.
According to a Reuters article, Kruger is the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant. Her mother moved to the United States from Jamaica. Her father was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrant. Both her parents were paediatricians. She is married to Brian Hauck, also a lawyer in San Francisco. The couple has two young children.
Before she turned to law and became one of the youngest justices ever appointed to the California Supreme Court, Kruger had journalism in her blood and was editor-in-chief of her high school’s newspaper.
At Harvard University, Kruger wrote for the daily student paper, the Crimson and while attending Yale Law School, she became editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. According to the article, the reputation Kruger gained “as a young journalist for being thoughtful and careful, followed her to the judiciary where the 45-year-old jurist has become known for her incremental approach to deciding cases.”
If chosen by Biden, Kruger would make history as the first Black woman to serve on the top US judicial body.
The Supreme Court has had only two Black justices, both men: Clarence Thomas, appointed in 1991 and still serving, and Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991 and died in 1993. If confirmed, Kruger also would become the sixth woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court.
