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Pasadena Press pasadenapress.com
MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 - JANUARY 4, 2015
Leondra Kruger Becomes Youngest Supreme Court Judge in 100 Years By JENNIFER SCHLUETER Last Monday, Leondra Kruger was unanimously approved as the youngest justice of the California Supreme Court in almost a century. The 38-year old had been nominated by Governor Jerry Brown in November, and will be sworn into office by him on January 5, along with MarianoFlorentino Cuellar, who was confirmed as justice in August. Cuellar will replace retiring Justice Marvin Baxtor and Kruger will fill Justice Joyce Kennard’s seat, who had retired in April. Kruger was appointed by California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye; Attorney General Kamala Harris; and Joan Dempsey Klein, “presiding justice of the second appellate district division three,” who rated her “‘exceptionally well-qualified,’ [which is] the highest ranking a judicial candidate can receive,” according to Courthouse News. Patch.com quoted former Assistant U.S. Solicitor General Benjamin Horwich, who had worked with Kruger: “She listens, she thinks, she listens,
she thinks and then she listens some more.” Cantil-Sakauye, chair of the San Francisco-based court, “called Kruger’s credentials ‘truly stellar,’” according the website. Following an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Yale University, Kruger worked as an assistant law professor at the University of Chicago, and practiced privately. The website also reported that she then went to Washington, D.C., where she became “assistant to the U.S. solicitor general and acting principal deputy solicitor general,” and later deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Kruger was born and raised in Glendale; however, has never practiced law in California nor been a judge. Thus, Cantil-Sakauye questioned Kruger about these two lacking fields to which Kruger answered that her work with the Justice Department has exposed her to a variety of legal principles and that she hopes to continue learning and “draw
Leondra Kruger
-Courtesy Photo
on the expertise of her colleagues on the court,” as Patch notes. According to the LA Times, Kruger told California Attorney General Kamala Harris that she was excited “to have the opportunity to come back home” to California. “It is where I was born and raised and where my family still lives,” she added. On the seven member court, Kruger will be one of three Democrats. Additionally, she will be the only African American member. Her colPlease see page 2
Courts Drop Charges against SeaWorld Float Protester On Thursday a Pasadena court dropped all charges against PETA supporter Amanda Slyter, who was arrested in January and charged with “interfering with a special event” for using her body to block the SeaWorld float at the Rose Parade. As you may recall, Slyter was prepared to use the rarely seen “necessity” (or “lesser of two evils” or “greater good”)
defense. Her counsel argued that the cruel capture and lifetime confinement of orcas to SeaWorld’s tiny concrete tanks constitute an emergency that necessitated action—in Slyter’s case, her disruption of SeaWorld’s propaganda plan. “This trial is just one step in the vigorous and growing movement to free the orcas who are cruelly confined at
SeaWorld and denied everything that is natural and important to them at SeaWorld,” says Slyter. “More and more people are demanding that SeaWorld move the orcas to a coastal sanctuary where they would enjoy some semblance of a natural life.” Since the release of the Please see page 2
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Family Struck by Hit-and– Run Driver; Family Dog Dead South Pasadena Police Monday were seeking the public’s help in finding a hit-andrun suspect that injured a San Gabriel Valley family as they were out for an evening walk and killed the family’s dog. The hit and run occured around 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Orange Grove Avenue and Columbia Street in South Pasadena, according to police reports. The driver of a newer model, dark-colored SUV hit “the 40-year-old husband, the 30-year-old mother, their 4-month-old daughter, who was being held in her mother’s arms, and the family dog,” while they were in the crosswalk. The driver stopped momentarily, then fled the scene, police said. The woman suffered a broken nose and her daughter fractured her skull. They both were expected to be released from the hospital Monday and should recover from their injuries, according to officials. The father was treated at the scene for minor injuries. The family’s dog, a 7-yearold Boston terrier named “Babell”, was killed. The South Pasadena Police Department Association has offered to pay for the cremation of the family pet. Anyone with information that could help authorities identify the driver should call the South Pasadena Police Department Detective Bureau at (626) 403-7280.