Blog note: this article references a speech by
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye on November 2 in Lafayette at the 34th
Annual Conference of the California Grand Jurors’ Association.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is quick to
make light of her path to the California Supreme Court. "Path sort of
sounds like I had a plan," she said. "I just took every opportunity
that came my way."
Born to a family of modest means and a product
of public school education -- she went to Sacramento City College before
earning undergraduate and law degrees from UC Davis -- Cantil-Sakauye worked as
a waitress and, later, as a Lake Tahoe blackjack dealer to help pay her way
through school. ("I learned many things about body language and people's
behavior when they were sitting at the blackjack table," she said.)
That she arrived in the state's highest court,
after stints in the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, Gov. George
Deukmejian's administration and judgeships on municipal, superior and appellate
courts is as much a testimony to perseverance as career planning.
"If I'd had a plan," she said,
"it probably wouldn't have looked like that."
She shared her story recently in Lafayette while
speaking at the California Grand Jurors' Association annual conference, but not
before expressing her passionate belief that people from all walks of life --
even waitresses and blackjack dealers -- should better understand the inner
workings of government. That concern was affirmed
three years ago when she visited the state Capitol and was startled to have a
legislator ask what agency she belonged to.
"I was also asked, 'Which chief justice
are you?' Some of my colleagues were asked, 'How many chief justices are
there?' There's a fundamental misunderstanding of the third branch (of
government)."
Just to be clear: The only chief justice is
Cantil-Sakauye, who's held that office since 2011. She's joined by six other
jurists -- three men and three women -- on the state's highest court, which
does not belong to an agency but is part of the judicial branch of government,
equal in stature to executive and legislative counterparts.
Eliminating such confusion is one of the
reasons the chief justice partnered several years ago with California
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and Secretary of State Alex
Padilla to create the Power of Democracy, an initiative that aims to integrate
civics into K-12 core curriculum. Many schools still wait until students are
high school seniors before addressing the topic.
"We're trying to get civics taught early
through things like mock trials and moot court," she said. "I've seen
a fourth-grade class put on a mock trial, and they were better than some
attorneys I've seen."
Cantil-Sakauye also was a driving force behind
the creation of the Civic Learning Award, given annually since 2013 to public
schools that best engage students in civics education. She said a San Diego
high school was honored for creating a program to help nearby college freshmen
and sophomores register to vote.
"It's critical that we get young people
thinking about the world they're in and how it works," she said, "and
it's not just by the magic of happenstance."
She can talk at length about how California's
judiciary works, with approximately 2,000 judges seeing due process done in 532
courthouses in 58 counties across the state. She proudly notes it's the largest
and most diverse judicial system in the nation.
And sitting atop the highest court of them all
is an unlikely jurist who used to wait tables and deal blackjack.
November 6, 2015
Contra
Costa Times
By Tom
Barnidge
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