There have been many people mentioned as a possible appointee (or nominee) to the California Supreme Court. (See here, here, and here.) Add one more name to the list: State Senator Darrell Steinberg.
Veteran California government writer Timm Herdt suggests in his weekly column in today’s Ventura County Star that Steinberg, the current Senate President Pro Tem who will soon be termed out of the Legislature, would be “an inspired choice” for one of the two current vacancies on the court. The Nooner political blog agrees. According to Herdt, Governor Jerry Brown’s selection of Steinberg “would anchor the court with someone with knowledge of California law that is far broader, if potentially not as deep in some areas, than anyone who comes from a judicial background.” Steinberg is also a law school classmate of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
It’s been a long time since an elected public official has been chosen for the California Supreme Court (or the United States Supreme Court, for that matter). For California, I believe it’s been 50 years, since Governor Pat Brown appointed then California Attorney General Stanley Mosk to the court.
Herdt’s column shouldn’t be brushed off. Six months before Governor Jerry Brown appointed Goodwin Liu to the court, another political writer suggested Liu as a good candidate when Liu’s name was not on many people’s radars.