California’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said Thursday she quit the Republican Party over the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Cantil-Sakauye, who was appointed by a Republican governor, has re-registered as a no-party-preference voter, and told CALmatters that after Kavanaugh’s confirmation she felt “compelled to make a choice.”
“You can draw your own conclusions,” the 59-year-old jurist said. Her decision was backed by family and friends, with whom she’d reached the consensus that “you didn’t leave the party. The party left you.”
Her change in party affiliation, she said, “better suits what I do and how I approach issues.”
Cantil-Sakauye made her comments shortly after appearing on a panel at the National Press Club with fellow judges and justices who spoke about attacks on the judiciary.
The first Filipina-American state Supreme Court justice and the second woman to serve as California’s chief justice, Cantil-Sakauye has previously openly disagreed with the President Trump’s rhetoric on the politicization of judges, saying, “The people uttering those are doing damage, short-term and long-term, to courts, to the rule of law,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Cantil-Sakauye served as a prosecutor before becoming a judge 28 years ago and has served as California’s chief justice since 2011. She was appointed to the position by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.
