SacBee column on the outgoing Chief

How California’s chief justice changed the state — and why you might not have noticed

Tani Cantil-Sakauye has been one of the most consequential California figures of the last 12 years. But you might not know it because the outgoing chief justice is unlike most consequential California figures of the last 12 years.

Communicating chiefly through legal opinions, Cantil-Sakauye never sought to be well-known for anything other than her work.

But the California Supreme Court that Cantil-Sakauye leaves Friday is more unified in its decisions, and more supportive of women and people of color in the judiciary, than ever before.